美国国家公共电台 NPR When The Brain Scrambles Names, It's Because You Love Them

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

A thing I am totally guilty of, David - messing up names. I've definitely called...

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

Yeah.

MARTIN: ...My kids the wrong names. I know it's really...

GREENE: That's terrible.

MARTIN: No, it's very confusing in my household. Have you ever done that? Have you ever called your wife another name?

GREENE: No, absolutely not. And I can't believe...

MARTIN: Of course you wouldn't.

GREENE: ...You called your kids the wrong name.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

GREENE: That's horrible.

MARTIN: OK, it turns out I am not alone. Don't make me a pariah¹ here. Most everyone does this. It's not random². There is a pattern to it. And Michelle Trudeau is going to explain.

MICHELLE TRUDEAU, BYLINE³: Sometimes a scientist investigates a problem prompted by early personal experience. That's what happened to researcher Samantha Deffler from Rollins College.

SAMANTHA DEFFLER: When I was young, my mother used to call me by my siblings⁴' names and by the dog's name.

TRUDEAU: It sounded like this.

DEFFLER: Rebecca (ph), Jessie (ph), Molly (ph), Samantha. (Laughter).

TRUDEAU: Not a big deal - but as a cognitive⁵ scientist, it got Samantha Deffler thinking.

DEFFLER: Why this happened, why these types of errors occurred and what the cognitive processes might be underlying⁶ these errors.

TRUDEAU: So she surveyed over 1,700 people - men, women, different ages - asking about name mix-ups. And she found naming mistakes are very common. Most everyone does it. Deffler calls it a normal cognitive glitch⁷ - not related to a bad memory or to aging, but rather to how your brain categorizes names.

DEFFLER: Overwhelmingly, the wrong name that was used was in the same category.

TRUDEAU: Meaning the same relationship category, like a special folder⁸ of family names and a different folder for friends' names stored in the brain.

DEFFLER: So I was being called other family members' names. I was never being called one of my mother's friends' names.

TRUDEAU: Deffler says misnaming happens across the board, to men and women, from college students to older adults. There was one group especially though.

DEFFLER: Especially moms. Any mom I talk to says, you know, I've definitely done this.

TRUDEAU: It works something like this. Say you've got an armful of groceries and you need some quick help from one of your kids. Your brain tries to rapidly retrieve⁹ the name from the family folder but...

NEIL MULLIGAN: It may end up retrieving¹⁰ a related but incorrect name.

TRUDEAU: That's Neil Mulligan, a cognitive scientist at UNC Chapel¹¹ Hill.

MULLIGAN: As one is preparing to produce the utterance¹², you're activating¹³ not just their name but competing names.

TRUDEAU: The names of your other children stored in the family folder.

MULLIGAN: And sometimes these competing names win the battle, and they actually influence the articulation¹⁴ that you produce.

TRUDEAU: Like in that classic scene from the TV show "Friends" where Ross gets his wedding vows¹⁵ just a little bit mixed up.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FRIENDS")

PETER EYRE: (As The Registrar) Now, Ross, repeat after me. I, Ross...

DAVID SCHWIMMER: (As Ross Geller) I, Ross...

EYRE: (As The Registrar) Take thee, Emily...

SCHWIMMER: (As Ross Geller) Take thee, Rachel...

TRUDEAU: Now, Ross probably had both Rachel's and Emily's names in his mental folder of loved ones, and a mental mix-up ensued. And it's not just human loved ones that are filed together.

DEFFLER: Whatever dog we had at the time would be included in the string along with my sister, Rebecca, and my brother, Jessie.

TRUDEAU: Your family dog typically gets filed with other family members and thus mixed up with other family names. This, of course, begs the question, what about your family cat?

DEFFLER: You are much more likely to be called the dog's name than you are to be called the cat's name.

MULLIGAN: And that's interesting. And it implies that, psychologically, we categorize the dog's name along with our family members' names, and we don't do that with cats' names apparently¹⁶, or hamsters' names, or other animal names.

TRUDEAU: So no need to worry if you do this, Mulligan says reassuringly¹⁷. It's just an ordinary snafu in pulling up the right name from the right folder on demand. The findings are published in the journal of Memory and Cognition. For NPR News, I'm Michelle Trudeau.

1 pariah   

n.被社会抛弃者

参考例句：

• Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village.不一会儿，汤姆碰上了村里的少年弃儿。
• His landlady had treated him like a dangerous criminal,a pariah.房东太太对待他就像对待危险的罪犯、对待社会弃儿一样。

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

5 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

6 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

7 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

8 folder   

n.纸夹，文件夹

参考例句：

• Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
• He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。

9 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

10 retrieving   

n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Ignoring all, he searches the ground carefully for any cigarette-end worth retrieving. 没管打锣的说了什么，他留神的在地上找，看有没有值得拾起来的烟头儿。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Retrieving the nodules from these great depths is no easy task. 从这样的海底深渊中取回结核可不是容易的事情。 来自辞典例句

11 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

12 utterance   

n.用言语表达，话语，言语

参考例句：

• This utterance of his was greeted with bursts of uproarious laughter.他的讲话引起阵阵哄然大笑。
• My voice cleaves to my throat,and sob chokes my utterance.我的噪子哽咽，泣不成声。

13 activating   

活动的，活性的

参考例句：

• "I didn't say we'd got to stop activating the masses! “我并没说就此不发动！ 来自子夜部分
• Presumably both the very small size and activating influence of fluorine atoms contribute to this exception. 这大概是由于氟原子半径小和活性高这两个原因的影响，氟原子对这种例外做出了贡献。

14 articulation   

n.（清楚的）发音；清晰度，咬合

参考例句：

• His articulation is poor.他发音不清楚。
• She spoke with a lazy articulation.她说话慢吞吞的。

15 vows   

誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿

参考例句：

• Matrimonial vows are to show the faithfulness of the new couple. 婚誓体现了新婚夫妇对婚姻的忠诚。
• The nun took strait vows. 那位修女立下严格的誓愿。

16 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

17 reassuringly   

ad.安心，可靠

参考例句：

• He patted her knee reassuringly. 他轻拍她的膝盖让她放心。
• The doctor smiled reassuringly. 医生笑了笑，让人心里很踏实。