儿时记忆良多 成人后它们都有什么威力?

What you can remember from age 3 may help improve aspects of your life far into adulthood.
从三岁开始的记忆，也许有助于改善你成年后相当长时期内生活的方方面面。

Children who have the ability to recall and make sense of memories from daily life -- the first day of preschool, the time the cat died -- can use them to better develop a sense of identity, form relationships and make sound choices in adolescence and adulthood, new research shows.
最新研究发现，那些能够回想起日常生活片段并且理解其意义的儿童——比如记得幼儿园第一天入学，那只熟悉的猫死去的情形——可以利用这些记忆在青少年及成年时期更好地发展身份认同感、建立人际关系以及做出正确的选择。

While the lives of many youngsters today are heavily documented in photos and video on social media and stored in families' digital archives, studies suggest photos and videos have little impact. Parents play a bigger role in helping determine not just how many early memories children can recall, but how children interpret and learn from the events of their earliest experiences.
虽然现在很多年轻人的生活大部分都记录在社交媒体上的照片和视频里，或者储存在家庭的数字档案中，但研究表明，照片和视频的影响很小。家长发挥的作用更大，他们不仅能决定孩子能回想起多少早期的儿时记忆，还会影响到孩子如何对最早期经历的事件进行解读和学习。

'Our personal memories define who we are. They bond us together,' says Robyn Fivush, a psychology professor at Emory University in Atlanta and an author of dozens of studies on the topic. Children whose parents encourage reminiscing and storytelling about daily events show better coping and problem-solving skills by their preteens, and fewer symptoms of depression, research shows.
图表：更有助孩子思考的对话方式在该问题上发表过数十项研究的亚特兰大埃默里大学(Emory University)心理学教授罗宾·菲伍什(Robyn Fivush)说：“我们的记忆决定了我们是什么样的人。记忆是联结我们的纽带。”研究表明，受到家长鼓励回忆并讲述日常事件的儿童，在青春期前表现出更好的应对和解决问题的能力，抑郁的症状也更少。

The findings come from research on the mysteries of 'childhood amnesia' -- the fact that most people's earliest memories fade by ages 6 to 8 as the brain hasn't yet developed the capacity to retain them.
这些研究结果来自对“儿时记忆缺失”(childhood amnesia)谜团的研究。大多数人最早期的记忆会在6岁到8岁时逐渐消失，因为大脑尚未发育出保留这些记忆的能力。

In the past two years, new research techniques -- including improved data-modeling methods and growth in studies that track children's memories over several years -- have identified specific behaviors that help kids as old as 9 retain more vivid, detailed early memories.
过去两年，新的研究技术——包括更先进的数据建模方法，以及对儿童多年记忆进行跟踪研究的更成熟的手段——找到了那些有助于儿童到9岁还能保留鲜活详细的早期记忆的特定行为。

Few childhood memory studies have included fathers. Ones with fathers show mothers are more likely to use a conversation style that helps children retain early memories.
在儿时记忆的研究中，大部分都没有考虑到父亲的因素。那些纳入了父亲影响的研究表明，母亲更常用的谈话式风格有助于孩子保留早期记忆。

Some memories help build a sense of self-continuity, or personal identity, says a 2011 study. People recall these memories when they 'want to feel that I am the same person that I was before,' or 'when I want to understand how I have changed from who I was before.' A hurricane survivor, for example, might recall the memory as proof that she can survive tough experiences and grow stronger as a result.
2011年的一项研究称，有些记忆有助于建立自我延续感或者自我身份认同。人们在“希望觉得自己还是以前那个自己”，或者“我想知道跟以前相比有了什么变化”的时候，就会浮现出这些记忆。比如一个飓风幸存者可能会把飓风的记忆当作她可以在艰难环境中生存下来并变得更强大的证据。

Other memories serve a directive function, and guide behavior. People recall these when making decisions or to avoid repeating past mistakes. A person whose dog was killed by a car is likely to call on that memory when deciding to keep pets on a leash.
有些记忆则会起到指导的作用，可以指引人的行为。人们在做决定或者想避免重复过去错误的时候会想起这些经历。如果自己的狗曾被车撞死，在决定用绳子拴住宠物的时候就有可能想起这段经历。

A third type, social-bonding memories, involve relationships with others. People recall these when they want to strengthen relationships or form new ties, the study says. A college student who participated in a different study cited bedtime-reading sessions with his father, who read him the entire 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, as a motivator to build and maintain strong family ties in his adult life.
第三种叫做社交纽带记忆，涉及到人际关系。这项研究称，人们在希望加强关系或形成新的关系时会想起这种记忆。一名大学生在另外一项研究中提到，父亲曾在睡前给他讲故事，给他念了整个《指环王》(Lord of the Rings)三部曲，他说这是促使他成年后建立和保持亲密家庭关系的一个因素。

The ability to draw on all three types of memories predicts higher psychological well-being, a greater sense of purpose and more positive relationships, according to a study of 103 college students published last year in the journal Memory. The students were asked to recall four life events and cite reasons they regarded them as significant. Then they filled out assessments gauging their life satisfaction, self-esteem and psychological well-being.
一项去年发表于《记忆》(Memory)期刊的研究表明，如果这三种类型的记忆都能够存留，就可以预测出一个人的心理状况将更健康，目标感更强，人际关系也更积极。这项研究的对象是103名大学生，他们被要求回忆人生中的四件大事，并讲出他们认为这四个事件重要的原因。接着他们填写了衡量生活满意度、自尊心和心理健康状况的评估表。

Also, kids who can recall more specific memories are able to come up with more potential solutions to social problems, according to a 2011 University of New Hampshire study of 83 children ages 10 to 15.
此外，新罕布什尔大学(University of New Hampshire)2011年对83名10至15岁儿童所做的研究表明，记忆越具体的儿童越能够对社会问题提出更多可能的解决办法。

Widaad Zaman, a co-author of studies on memory, says early memories help her 4-year-old daughter Haneefah build a sense of identity. She used to love petting dogs being walked by their neighbors, Dr. Zaman says. When a stray dog ran up to her in the family's garage in Orlando, Fla., barking and sniffing at her, however, 'she was screaming, and very scared,' Dr. Zaman says. The memory has made Haneefah cautious around dogs that aren't on a leash. She sometimes tells her mother, 'I used to be a person who liked dogs, but now I'm a person that doesn't like dogs.'
Ammar Ally制造记忆：维达德•扎曼和当时三岁的女儿哈妮法。来自佛罗里达州奥兰多、合作写过记忆研究报告的维达德·扎曼(Widaad Zaman)说，早期记忆对她四岁的女儿哈妮法(Haneefah)建立身份认同感有帮助。她说，女儿以前喜欢在邻居遛狗的时候抚摸小狗。不过，后来一只流浪狗跑到她家的车库里，向她大叫并且在她身上闻来闻去时，“她尖叫起来，而且非常害怕”。这段记忆让哈妮法对没有被拴住的狗有了警惕。有时她会告诉妈妈：“我以前是个喜欢狗的人，但现在我是个不喜欢狗的人。”