Lecture 1 口译记忆的类型在线视频

Hello everyone

Nice to see you again

This is the online course

Interpreting: Theory and Practice

I’m your lecturer Catherine

Starting from this lecture

we move to unit 3: memory enhancement

You may already know that a strong memory

helps facilitate interpreting a great deal

But the fact is that not everyone

was born with a good memory

Most people have but an ordinary memory

Therefore

it’s quite necessary to train memory

if you want to do interpreting

Today our topic focuses on memory training

As is mentioned previously

memory plays a crucial role in interpreting

Without a good memory

it’s nearly impossible to store information

in your mind and output it

However

it does not mean that memory is beyond change

We do have some ways to enhance memory

Just follow me step by step and you’ll get onto it

Before we get down

to learning the specific memory enhancement skills

let’s look at Jeff’s example

Jeff

can you recall a particular event

that happened to you in middle school days

Yeah No big deal

I still remember our headmaster

bought watermelon to relieve our test pressure

during Dragon Boat Festival

If I read a string of numbers to you

can you still remember after a few minutes?

Hmm

I’m afraid I can’t that sounds tricky

Yes it is

But do you know why you can still remember something

that happened so many years ago?

I’m not sure

Are there any specific reasons?

Yes

It has something to do with our brain capacity

Our brain capacity allows us to retain information

either for a long time or for a short time

To be more specific

they refer to long-term memory and short-term memory

Long-term memory and short-term memory?

What are they exactly?

Well

They’ll be discussed today

I can’t wait to know more

Memory actually involves many different forms

We know that when we store a memory

we are in fact storing information

But what that information is

and how long it retains in our brain

determines what type of memory it is

According to psychologists

the biggest categories of memory

are short-term memory and long-term memory

based on the amount of time the memory is stored

Both can weaken due to age

or a variety of other reasons

and clinical conditions that affect memory

There are four characteristics of long-term memory

Firstly

it refers to our brain’s system for storing

managing and retrieving information

Secondly

long-term memory can last for just a few days

or for many years

Thirdly

Long-term memory isn’t static either

You do not imprint a memory and leave it as if untouched

Instead

you often revise the memory over time

As a result

your memories are not strictly constant

and are not always reliable

Unlike long-term memory

short-term memory is responsible

for storing information temporarily

and determining

if it will be dismissed or transferred on to long-term memory

STM is very brief When short-term memories

are not rehearsed or actively maintained

they last merely seconds

STM is limited

It is commonly suggested that short-term memory

can hold seven plus or minus two items

Given the nature of interpreting

short-term memory plays a major role in interpreting

Let’s look at an example

The following audio is in Chinese

Please listen to the audio and try to memorize it

Welcome back

Now assess your short memory ability

by retelling the source information as precisely as possible

This example is about the relation

between China and the UK

You’ll find it not difficult to remembe

If you can’t remember the whole of it

it doesn’t matter

In following three lectures

we’ll introduce some effective approaches

to train your memory

to extend the time of information storage

If you’re interested in interpreting

you can’t miss subsequent lectures

Well

this is the end of this lecture

Stay tuned