『新东方在线托福听力』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 10 Lec 4听力练习：What is the main purpose of the lecture?原文题目答案解析，TPO/Official 10 Lec 4听力原文范文音频翻译。

托福TPO/Official 10 Lec 4听力原文What is the main purpose of the lecture?-新东方托福官方网校手机版

旁白：听一段心理学的课堂讲解。

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a Psychology Class.

教授：好了，如果我问大家最早的记忆在什么时期，我猜你们多数人都会说在3岁左右，对吗？

Professor: 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?

3岁之前的事情我们基本都不记得。

We can’t remember anything that happened before the age of 3.

And this phenomenon is so widespread and well-documented.

叫做儿童健忘症，首次在1893年被文献中所记载。

It’s called childhood amnesia and was first documented in 1893.

正如我刚才所说，这种现象指的是成年人不能够想起孩子的事情。

As I said, this phenomenon refers to adults not being able to remember childhood incidents.

而不是说儿童试图回忆上个月或者是过去几年的事情。

It’s not children trying to remember events from last month or last year.

当然了，如果说你们小时候也记不得，长大后就更不能记得了。

Of course it follows that if you can’t remember an incident as a child, you probably won’t remember it as an adult.

What are the reasons for childhood amnesia?

曾经一个流行的解释是儿童的记忆受到抑制和干扰，因为我们成年后就回忆起来有障碍。

Well, once a popular explanation was that childhood memories are repressed... uh, the memories are disturbing so that as adults we keep them buried.

我们不能回忆起来这些事情，这建立在……不是，不能建立在……我们今天要讲的在实验室中自主研发的测试。

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.

我们先不讲这个，就集中说说以下两点好吧。

So let’s put that explanation aside and concentrate on just two. OK?

可能我们在3岁之前的阶段确实也形成了记忆，但是在我们长大的过程中就慢慢遗忘了。

It could be that as children we do form memories of things prior to age of 3, but forget them as we grow older.

还有一种可能就是3岁以下的孩子缺乏记忆认知能力。

Another possibility is that children younger than 3 lack, lack some cognitive capacity for memory.

而在过去的100年中，这种儿童不能形成记忆的想法，一直在心理学界获得广泛认可。

And that idea, that children are unable to form memories, that’s been the dominant belief in psychology for the past 100 years.

这种想法和事物、与让·皮亚杰的理论以及孩子们语言的发展都有很大关联。

And this idea is very much tied two things, the theories of Jean Piaget and also to language development in children.

说说让·皮亚杰的认知发展理论——让·皮亚杰提出由于18‐24个月以下的孩子不会说话。

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.

那么就缺乏来表示物体，以及那些无法用实体呈现的事件的记忆符号。

That is, they lack the means to symbolically represent objects, and events that are not physically presented.

让·皮亚杰提出儿童没有办法呈现那些并没有展现在他们面前的事物。

Piaget proposed that young children don’t have a way to represent things that aren’t right in front of them.

一旦语言在儿童2岁左右开始发育的时候，他们就有了能一套呈现符号系统，而且能立即说出不在场的东西，也包括过去的事物。

Once language starts to develop from about age 2, they do have a system for symbolical representation and can talk about things which are not in their immediate environment including the past.

当然他没有说婴儿没有任何记忆，大家都知道婴儿可以认知一些刺激物体，如人的长相。

Of course he didn’t claim that infants don’t have any sort of memory, it is acknowledged that they can recognize some stimuli, like faces.

这种模式在心理学界一直都被广泛认可，尽管没有在孩子身上进行过任何试验。

And for many years this model was very much in favor in psychology, even though memory tests were never performed on young children.

在20世纪80年代，研究终于结束了。

Well, finally in the 1980s, a study was done.

研究显示2岁一下的孩童有回忆的能力。

And this study showed that very young children under the age of 2 do have the capacity for recall.

既然孩子那时候还不能说话，那么试验是怎么进行的呢？

Now if the children can’t talk, how was recall tested?

这是个好问题，因为回忆的能力总是与语言能力相关联。

Well, that is a good question, since the capacity for recall has always been linked with the ability to talk.

所以研究者就用模拟测试进行了实验。

So the researcher set up an experiment using imitation-based tasks.

成人用适当的玩具或者其他的物体来进行演示，包括两个步骤。

Adults used props, uh, toys or other objects to demonstrate an action that have 2 steps.

要求孩子们立即来模仿这些步骤，然后过了一个多月，甚至是更久，孩子们就不能想起来并展示了，包括使用的物体、演示的步骤及顺序。甚至是9个月大的孩子。

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 month.

实验显示在最小的孩子中，也有更快的遗忘速度。但更重要的是，实验显示儿童不是根据语言发育来回忆的。

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.

我想我该提及一下，不能说语言发育和记忆没有关联。

I guess I should add that the findings: Don’t say that there was no connection between the development of language and memory.

有证据显示，有能力去讲一个事件会加强记忆。

There are some evidence that being able to talk about that event does lead to having a stronger memory of that event.

But that does not seem the real issue here.

好了，再回到儿童健忘症的缘由这个话题上来。

So, back to our question about the cause of childhood amnesia.

Well, there is something called the rate of forgetting.

儿童健忘症可能就是遗忘率的一种体现。换言之，三岁以下的孩子能够形成记忆，而且与语言没有关系。

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.

但是他们遗忘的速度很快，很可能比成人快。

But they forget the memories at a fast rate, probably faster than adults do.

研究人员设立了一个标准，一种意料之外的遗忘率，但是我们能想到的遗忘率是基于成人测试基础上形成的。

Researchers have set a standard... sort of an expected rate of forgetting, but that expected rate was set based on tests done on adults.

那么三岁以下的孩子的遗忘率是多少呢?

So what is the rate of forgetting for children under the age of 3?

我们认为会很高，但能够反驳这个观点的测试目前还没有进行过。

We expect it to be high, but the tests to prove this really haven’t been done yet.

Why does the professor ask student about their earliest memories?

What does the professor imply about some of the explanations for childhood amnesia that she describes?

The professor mentions some commonly held explanations for childhood amnesia. Indicate whether each of the following is one of the explanations she mentions.

How was recall tested in children without language ability?

What did the researchers conclude from this study?

Narrator 
Listen to part of a lecture in a Psychology Class. 
A: OK. If I asked about the earliest thing you can remember, I’ll bet for most of you, your earliest memory would be from about age three, right? Well, that’s true for most adults. We can’t remember anything that happened before the age of three and this phenomenon is so wide spread 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 will remember it as an adult. OK. So why is this? What are the reasons for childhood amnesia? 
A: OK. If I asked about the earliest thing you can remember, I’ll bet for most of you, your earliest memory would be from about age three, right? Well, that’s true for most adults. We can’t remember anything that happened before the age of three and this phenomenon is so wide spread 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 will remember it as an adult. OK. So why is this? What are the reasons for childhood amnesia? 
Well, once a popular explanation was that childhood memory is always pressed that the memories are disturbing, so that is adults we keep them buried, and so we can recall them. And this is based on, well, it’s not based on the kind of sort that research in lab testing I want to talk about today. So let’s put that explanation aside and concentrate on just two. 
Well, once a popular explanation was that childhood memory is always pressed that the memories are disturbing, so that is adults we keep them buried, and so we can recall them. And this is based on, well, it’s not based on the kind of sort that research in 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 3 but forget them as we grow older. That’s one explanation. Another possibility is that children younger than three 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 hundred years. And this idea is very much tied to two things, the theories of John 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 to 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 aren’t 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. 
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 talk, how was recall tested? That’s a good question. Since the capacity for recall has always been linked with the ability to talk, so the researchers set up an experiment using imitation-based tasks. Adults use props or toys or other objects to demonstrate an action that has two 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 recall or replicate the action, the objects used, the steps involved and the order of the steps, even children as young as 9 months.
Now tests showed that there was a fast 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. 
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 talk, how was recall tested? That’s a good question. Since the capacity for recall has always been linked with the ability to talk, the researchers set up an experiment using imitation-based tasks. Adults use props or toys or other objects to demonstrate an action that has two 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 recall or replicate the action, the objects used, the steps involved and the order of the steps, even children as young as 9 months. 
Now tests showed that there was a fast 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’s some evidence that being able to talk about in the event does lead to having a stronger memory of that event, but that doesn’t seem to be 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 the 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 the adults do. Researchers have set standard, sort of an expected rate of forgetting, but that expected rate was set based on tests done on adults. So what is the rate of forgetting for children under the age of 3? We expect to be high but the tests to prove this really haven’t been done yet.