Part I
Pro: OK. If I ask about the earliest thing you can remember, I will bet for most of you, your earliest memory would be from about age 3, right? Well, that’s true for most adults. We can’t remember anything that happened before the age of 3. And this phenomenon is so widespread and well documented. It has a name. It’s called childhood amnesia and was first documented in 1893.
As I said, this phenomenon refers to adults not being able to remember childhood incidents. It’s not children trying to remember events from last month or last year. Of course it follows that if you can’t remember an incident as a child, you probably won’t remember it as an adult. OK. So…why is this? What are the reasons for childhood amnesia?
当然，如果你在小时候不记得某件事，那么你在长大后也不可能记得它。
1. document|ˈdɒkjumənt|
verb. to record the details of sth 记录，记载（详情）
E.g.: Causes of the disease have been well documented.
这种疾病的起因已有完备的记载。
2. amnesia |æmˈni:ziə|
noun. a medical condition in which sb partly or completely loses their memory 记忆缺失；遗忘症
E.g.: People suffering from amnesia don't forget their general knowledge of objects.
患健忘症的人不会忘记关于物体的一些基本知识。
3. refer to
to describe or be connected to sb/sth 描述；涉及；与…相关
E.g.: The term ‘Arts ’ usually refers to humanities and social sciences.
arts一词通常指人文和社会科学。
4. follow |ˈfɑ:loʊ|
verb. to be the logical result of sth 是…的必然结果
E.g.: I don't see how that follows from what you've just said.
根据你刚才所说的，我不明白怎么会产生那样的结果。
Part II
Well, once a popular explanation was that childhood memories are repressed...uh, the memories are disturbing so that as adults we keep them buried. And so we can’t recall them and this is based on…well it’s not based on, on, on…the kind of solid research and lab testing I want to talk about today. So let’s put that explanation aside and concentrate on just two. OK?
It could be that as children we do form memories of things prior to age of 3, but forget them as we grow older. That’s one explanation. Another possibility is that children younger than 3 lack some cognitive capacity for memory. And that idea, that children are unable to form memories, that’s been the dominant belief in psychology for the past 100 years.
可能是作为孩子，我们确实在3岁之前形成了对事物的记忆，但随着年龄的增长却忘记了它们。
1. repress |rɪˈpres|
verb. to try not to have or show an emotion, a feeling, etc. 克制；压抑；抑制
E.g.: He burst in, making no effort to repress his fury.
他冲了进来，毫不掩饰自己的愤怒。
2. disturbing|dɪˈstɜ:bɪŋ|
adj. making you feel anxious and upset or shocked 引起烦恼的；令人不安的；引起恐慌的
E.g.: There was something about him she found disturbing.
他身上有某种东西使她不安。
3. solid|ˈsɒlɪd|
adj. that you can rely on; having a strong basis 可靠的；可信赖的；坚实的
E.g.: As yet, they have no solid evidence.
他们至今没有任何可靠的证据。
4. cognitive|ˈkɒgnətɪv|
adj. connected with mental processes of understanding 认知的；感知的；认识的
E.g.: 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。
6. dominant|ˈdɒmɪnənt|
adj. more important, powerful or noticeable than other things 首要的；占支配地位的；占优势的；显著的
E.g.: The dominant feature of the room was the large fireplace.
这间屋子要数那个大壁炉最显眼了。
Part III
And this idea is very much tied to two things, the theories of Jean Piaget and also to language development in children, so Piaget’s theory of cognitive development–Piaget suggested that because they don’t have language, children younger than 18-24 months live in the here and now. That is, they lack the means to symbolically represent objects, and events that are not physically present. Everybody get that? Piaget proposed that young children don’t have a way to represent things that aren’t right in front of them. That’s what language does, right? Words represent things, ideas.
Once language starts to develop from about age 2, they do have a system for symbolic representation and can talk about things which are not in their immediate environment including the past. Of course he didn’t claim that infants don’t have any sort of memory, it's acknowledged that they can recognize some stimuli, like faces. And for many years this model was very much in favor in psychology, even though memory tests were never performed on young children.
一旦语言从大约2岁开始发展，他们就确实有了一个可以使用象征的表达系统，并且可以谈论不在他们当前环境中的事物，包括过去。
1. here and now
you use here and now to emphasize that something is happening at the present time, rather than in the future or past, or that you would like it to happen at the present time. 此时此刻;目前;眼下
E.g.: Instead of staying in the here and now, you bring up similar instances from the past.
你没有紧扣眼前所发生的事，而是只提出了一些过去的类似事例。
2. that is (to say)
used to say what sth means or to give more information 也就是说；即；换句话说
E.g.: He's a local government administrator, that is to say a civil servant.
他是地方政府的行政官员，也就是公务员。
3. means |mi:nz|
noun. an action, an object or a system by which a result is achieved; a way of achieving or doing sth 方式；方法；途径
E.g.: We needed to get to London but we had no means of transport.
我们需要赶往伦敦，但却没有任何交通工具。
4. represent |ˌreprɪˈzent|
verb. if you represent a person or thing as a particular thing, you describe them as being that thing. 描绘;描写
E.g.: The popular press tends to represent him as an environmental guru.
大众媒体往往把他描绘成环保领袖。
5. immediate |ɪˈmi:diət|
adj. existing now and needing urgent attention 目前的；当前的；迫切的
E.g.: Our immediate concern is to help the families of those who died.
我们的当务之急是帮助那些死者的亲属。
6. stimulus |ˈstɪmjələs|
noun. something that produces a reaction in a human, an animal or a plant （使生物产生反应的）刺激，刺激物
E.g.: The animals were conditioned to respond to auditory stimuli (= sounds) .
经过训练，那些动物对声音形成了条件反射。
7. in favor
if you are in favour of sb/sth, you support and agree with them/it 赞同；支持
E.g.: I'm all in favour of (= completely support) equal pay for equal work.
我完全支持同工同酬。
Part IV
Well, finally in the 1980s, a study was done. And this study showed that very young children under the age of 2 do have the capacity for recall. Now if the children can’t talk, how was recall tested? Well, that is a good question, since the capacity for recall has always been linked with the ability to talk.
So the researcher set up an experiment using imitation-based tasks. Adults used props, uh, toys or other objects to demonstrate an action that had 2 steps. The children were asked to imitate the steps immediately and then again after delays of one or more months, and even after a delay, the children could…could recall or replicate the action, the objects used, the steps involved and the order of the steps, even children as young as 9 months!
孩子们被要求立即模仿那些步骤，然后在过了一个或几个月之后再次模仿，即使在这段延迟之后，孩子们也可以……回忆起或者重复那些动作、那些使用过的物体、以及涉及的步骤和步骤的顺序，即便是只有9个月大的孩子！
1. based|beɪst|
adj. (in compounds 构成复合词) containing sth as an important part or feature 以…为重要部分（或特征）；以…为主
E.g.: lead-based paints
铅基涂料
2. prop |prɑ:p|
noun. a small object used by actors during the performance of a play or in a film/movie 道具
E.g.: He is responsible for all the stage props and lighting.
他负责全部舞台道具和灯光。
3. imitate |ˈɪmɪteɪt|
verb. to copy sb/sth 模仿；仿效
E.g.: No computer can imitate the complex functions of the human brain.
任何计算机都无法模拟人脑的复杂功能。
4. replicate|ˈreplɪkeɪt|
verb. to copy sth exactly 复制；（精确地）仿制
E.g.: Subsequent experiments failed to replicate these findings.
后来的实验没有得出同样的结果。
Part V
Now, tests showed that there was a faster rate of forgetting among the youngest children, but most importantly, it showed that the development of recall did not depend on language development. And that was an important finding. I guess I should add that the findings: don’t say that there was no connection between the development of language and memory. There are some evidence that being able to talk about an event does lead to having a stronger memory of that event. But that does not seem the real issue here.
So, back to our question about the cause of childhood amnesia, well, there is something called the rate of forgetting. And childhood amnesia may reflect a high rate of forgetting; in other words, children under the age of 3 do form memories and do so without language. But they forget the memories at a fast rate, probably faster than adults do. Researchers have set a standard…sort of an expected rate of forgetting, but that expected rate was set based on tests done on the adults. So what is the rate of forgetting for children under the age of 3? We expect it to be high, but the tests to prove this really haven’t been done yet.
也有一些证据表明，能够谈论某个事件确实会导致对该事件有更强烈的记忆。
1. rate |reɪt|
noun. a measurement of the speed at which sth happens 速度；进度
E.g.: The number of reported crimes is increasing at an alarming rate.
报警案件的数量正在以惊人的速度增长。
2. add |æd|
verb. to say sth more; to make a further remark 补充说；继续说
E.g.: I have nothing to add to my earlier statement.
我对我早先说的话没有什么补充的。
3. reflect |rɪˈflekt|
verb. to show or be a sign of the nature of sth or of sb's attitude or feeling 显示，表明，表达（事物的自然属性或人们的态度、情感等）
E.g.: Our newspaper aims to reflect the views of the local community.
我们的报纸旨在表达当地人民的心声。
