BBC随身英语｜音乐如何勾起我们的回忆？

How music takes us back to our past
It's happened to all of us: a song comes on the radio, and we are immediately transported to a time in our past. But what is it that makes music so effective at doing this?
我们每个人都会遇到这种情况：收音机里传来一首歌，我们就会立刻被带到到过去的时光。是什么让音乐能如此有效地做到这一点呢？

There are a few things that link tunes with our memories. Paul Donoghue, writing for ABC News, reminds us that the emotional nature of music helps make it particularly memorable. And Kelly Jakubowski, an assistant professor in music psychology, adds that music and singing are often part of many important life events and rituals, and that it is also very effective in grabbing our attention. These things combined mean that music and these life events are likely to be encoded together in our memories.
有一些东西将曲调与我们的记忆联系在一起。保罗·多诺霍在为美国广播公司新闻撰稿时提醒我们，音乐的情感属性有助于让人特别难忘。音乐心理学助理教授凯利·雅库博斯基补充说，音乐和歌唱通常是许多重要生活事件和仪式的一部分，它还能非常有效地吸引我们的注意力。这些因素结合在一起，意味着音乐和这些生活事件很可能会一起编码在我们的记忆中。

Music itself is easy to remember. Tiffany Jenkins, writing for BBC Culture, tells us how throughout history oral cultures have passed important knowledge from generation to generation through song. The rhythm, rhyme, melody and alliteration in lyrics all serve as memory aids.
音乐本身很好记。蒂芙尼·詹金斯为BBC文化撰稿，她向我们讲述了在历史上，口述文化如何通过歌曲将重要的知识代代相传。歌词中的节奏、韵律、旋律和典故都能帮助记忆。

She goes on to say that pop music especially can be associated with a particular moment in time. As Shahram Heshmat, writing in Psychology Today highlights, we often become familiar with a piece of music because we hear it as background music. Familiarity is important. Jakubowski, tells us that the more familiar a piece of music is, the more effective it is at bringing back memories.
她接着说，流行音乐尤其可以与特定的时刻联系在一起。正如沙赫拉姆·赫什马特在《今日心理学》上所强调的那样，我们经常熟悉一段音乐，因为我们听到它是背景音乐。熟悉度很重要。雅库博夫斯基告诉我们，一段音乐越熟悉，它就越能有效地唤起人们的记忆。

This applies to music more than other cultural products because we are far more likely to hear a song over and over again than watch a film or a TV programme in the same way. Heshmat points out that our musical preferences usually form during our teens, and this corresponds with what many experts call the 'reminiscence bump', where we make our strongest memories between the ages of 10 and 30.
与其他文化产品相比，这一点更适用于音乐，因为我们反复聆听一首歌曲的可能性要远远大于以同样的方式观看一部电影或电视节目。赫什马特指出，我们的音乐偏好通常是在十几岁时形成的，这与许多专家所说的“回忆高峰 ”相吻合，即我们在 10 岁到 30 岁之间的记忆最为深刻。

It's clear that our memories and music are closely linked – to the point that music is being used to help dementia sufferers access memories that they thought they had lost.
很明显，我们的记忆和音乐是紧密相连的——以至于音乐被用来帮助痴呆症患者获得他们认为已经失去的记忆。

词汇表
come on the radio 在广播中播放
tune 旋律，曲子
music psychology 音乐心理学
singing 歌唱
grab our attention 吸引我们的注意力
encode 把…译成电码（或密码）；把…编码
rhythm 节奏，韵律
rhyme 押韵
melody 旋律，曲调
alliteration 头韵
lyrics 歌词
pop music 流行音乐
piece of music 一段音乐
background music 背景音乐
cultural product 文化产品
musical preferences 音乐偏好
reminiscence bump 回忆高峰：指人们在回忆过去时，对某一特定年龄段（通常是青少年和早期成年时期）的记忆更加清晰和详细的现象。
dementia 痴呆，精神错乱


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