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关于你三岁之前的生活你还记得什么吗？

What do you remember about your life before you were three?

几乎没有人记得在他们很小的时候发生的任何事情了。

Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years.

成年人对于在三岁之后的那几年发生了什么也记不太清楚了。

Adults’ memories of the next few years also tend to be scanty.

绝大多数人只记得几件事情—通常是那些有意义的和比较特别的，比如住院或者是弟弟妹妹的出生。

Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or a sibling’s birth.

该如何解释这种对于之前事情的记忆的缺失呢？

How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained?

时间的流逝并不能解释清楚这个；成年人依然可以很好地认出照片上35年前高中时代的那些人。

The sheer passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier.

另一种看上去可行的解释——婴儿在那个发展时期没有建立起来长久的记忆——也是行不通的。

Another seemingly plausible explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect.

两岁半到三岁大的孩子能够记住他们一岁时候发生的事情，甚至十一个月大的孩子能够记住接下来一年发生的事情。

Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later.

退一步说，关于婴幼儿健忘症反映了孩子们对性方面事件的压制的假设也是无法解释这个现象的。

Nor does the hypothesis that infantile amnesia reflects repression— or holding back— of sexually charged episodes explain the phenomenon.

当这种压制发生的时候，人们也是无法记起来在婴儿和孩提时代发生的一些普通的事情的。

While such repression may occur, people cannot remember ordinary events from the infant and toddler periods, either.

其他的三种解释看上去更说得通。

Three other explanations seem more promising.

一种是包括了与记忆相关的生理学上的改变。

One involves physiological changes relevant to memory.

脑前叶的不断成熟是贯穿于整个早期的童年的，大脑的这一部分可能对于记忆一些特殊的日后能回忆起来的事情尤其重要。

Maturation of the frontal lobes of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be retrieved later.

关于婴幼儿长期记忆的形成的解释还涉及到了他们之前早期看到的或做过的重复性的活动，比如说在黑暗的环境里摸东西，把一个瓶子塞到洋娃娃的嘴里，或者将玩具撕成两半等。

Demonstrations of infants’ and toddlers’ long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll’s mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy.

大脑生理性成熟的程度可能能够帮助这些种类的记忆，但是无法帮助那些需要清晰语言提示的种类的记忆。

The brain’s level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones requiring explicit verbal descriptions.

第二种解释涉及到了社会环境对于孩子语言使用的影响。

A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children’s language use.

去听和讲述故事可能会帮助孩子贮存一些信息，这些信息在他们后来的童年和成年时期也都能记得。

Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood.

通过听有很清晰的开头、中间和结尾的故事，孩子可能能够学会去提取出来事情的大意，即使很多年之后他们也可以去描述。

Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending, children may learn to extract the gist of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later.

与这个观点一致的是，当孩子们三岁的时候，父母会越来越多的和他们讨论过去发生的事情。

Consistent with this view, parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old.

但是，听到这样的故事并不足以使得孩子形成长期的记忆。

However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories.

把这样的故事讲给两岁大的孩子时并不能产生长期的语言化的记忆。

Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.

第三种对于婴幼儿健忘症的有可能的解释涉及到婴幼儿解读信息与年龄大的孩子和成年人回忆信息的方式是不一致的。

A third likely explanation for infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults retrieve it.

人们是否会记住一件事情很大程度上取决于他们早期解读信息和后期回忆信息的匹配性。

Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to retrieve it.

这个人越能够重建起之前解读信息的方式，就越能够回忆起来信息。

The better able the person is to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.

这个观点能被一系列的因素所支撑，这些因素能够造成孩子解读信息与年纪大些的孩子和成人回忆信息的不匹配。

This view is supported by a variety of factors that can create mismatches between very young children’s encoding and older children’s and adults’ retrieval efforts.

这个世界相对于那些仅仅两三尺高的孩子和对于那些五六尺高的成人来说是非常不一样的。

The world looks very different to a person whose head is only two or three feet above the ground than to one whose head is five or six feet above it.

大些的孩子和成人经常会去努力回忆起他们看到过的事物的名字，但是婴儿还没有对于这些信息进行语言化的解读。

Older children and adults often try to retrieve the names of things they saw, but infants would not have encoded the information verbally.

对于一些比如生日派对，去医生办公室这种事件分类的常识有助于成人去储存他们的信息，但是鉴于婴幼儿的信息结构，他们无法去储存这些信息。

General knowledge of categories of events such as a birthday party or a visit to the doctor’s office helps older individuals encode their experiences, but again, infants and toddlers are unlikely to encode many experiences within such knowledge structures.

这三种关于婴幼儿健忘症的解释并不是互相排斥的，事实上他们是互相支撑的。

These three explanations of infantile amnesia are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they support each other.

生理的不成熟可能是为什么婴幼儿无法形成长期记忆的原因之一，甚至是当他们在上学前听到催进他们记忆的故事的时候也无法形成。

Physiological immaturity may be part of why infants and toddlers do not form extremely enduring memories, even when they hear stories that promote such remembering in preschoolers.

听故事能促使学龄前儿童解读一些事件，这些事件使得他们能形成成年后能提取的记忆。

Hearing the stories may lead preschoolers to encode aspects of events that allow them to form memories they can access as adults.

相反，对于他们听到的事情的进一步的解读能够帮助他们更好的理解和记住故事，因此使得故事对于记忆未来的事情更加有用。

Conversely, improved encoding of what they hear may help them better understand and remember stories and thus make the stories more useful for remembering future events.

因此，这三个解释——生理的成熟，听故事和讲故事，以及对于过去事情关键信息的进一步解读，都有可能克服婴幼儿健忘症。

Thus, all three explanations—physiological maturation, hearing and producing stories about past events, and improved encoding of key aspects of events—seem likely to be involved in overcoming infantile amnesia.

What purpose does paragraph 2 serve in the larger discussion of children’s inability to recall early experiences?

The word “plausible” in the passage is closest in meaning to

The word “phenomenon” in the passage is closest in meaning to

All of the following theories about the inability to recall early experiences are rejected in paragraph 2 EXCEPT:

What does paragraph 3 suggest about long-term memory in children?

According to paragraph 4, what role may storytelling play in forming childhood memories?

The word “critically” in the passage is closest in meaning to

The word “perspective” in the passage is closest in meaning to

The phrase “This view” in the passage refers to the belief that

According to paragraphs 5 and 6, one disadvantage very young children face in processing information is that they cannot

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

How does paragraph 7 relate to the earlier discussion of infantile amnesia?

Look at the four squares  that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Other important occasions are school graduations and weddings.  Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square  to add the sentence to the passage.

Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Infantile Amnesia What do you remember about your life before you were three?  Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years.  Adults’ memories of the next few years also tend to be scanty.  Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or a sibling’s birth.  How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The sheer passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly plausible explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later. Nor does the hypothesis that infantile amnesia reflects repression— or holding back— of sexually charged episodes explain the phenomenon. While such repression may occur, people cannot remember ordinary events from the infant and toddler periods, either. Three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be retrieved later. Demonstrations of infants’ and toddlers’ long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll’s mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain’s level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones requiring explicit verbal descriptions. A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children’s language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending, children may learn to extract the gist of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view, parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories. A third likely explanation for infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults retrieve it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to retrieve it. The better able the person is to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful. This view is supported by a variety of factors that can create mismatches between very young children’s encoding and older children’s and adults’ retrieval efforts. The world looks very different to a person whose head is only two or three feet above the ground than to one whose head is five or six feet above it. Older children and adults often try to retrieve the names of things they saw, but infants would not have encoded the information verbally. General knowledge of categories of events such as a birthday party or a visit to the doctor’s office helps older individuals encode their experiences, but again, infants and toddlers are unlikely to encode many experiences within such knowledge structures. These three explanations of infantile amnesia are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they support each other. Physiological immaturity may be part of why infants and toddlers do not form extremely enduring memories, even when they hear stories that promote such remembering in preschoolers. Hearing the stories may lead preschoolers to encode aspects of events that allow them to form memories they can access as adults. Conversely, improved encoding of what they hear may help them better understand and remember stories and thus make the stories more useful for remembering future events. Thus, all three explanations—physiological maturation, hearing and producing stories about past events, and improved encoding of key aspects of events—seem likely to be involved in overcoming infantile amnesia.