背单词时常见的“浴缸效应”

屈联西

2011年06月07日  中国日报网-英语点津

　　很多人都说他们学英语的时候最大的障碍就是单词记不住。经常记住了前面的，忘了后面的；要不就是单词字母记错了顺序。有人研究发现，单词的开头和结尾比中间部分更容易被记住。你有这个体会吗？
　　The 'bathtub effect' is perhaps the most commonly reported finding in the literature on memory for words. People remember the beginnings and ends of words better than the middles, as if the word were a person lying in a bathtub, with their head out of the water at one end and their feet out at the other. And, just as in a bathtub the head is further out of the water and more prominent than the feet, so the beginnings of words are, on average, better remembered than the ends。
　　“浴缸效应”大概是与背单词有关的文献记录中最常见的一个现象了。人们记单词的时候，对词的头和尾往往比中间部分记得更牢。这就好像单词是躺在浴缸里的一个人，头和脚都露出水面。而同时，头露出水面的部分往往比脚要多，而且比脚更加显眼。因此，单词的开头部分一般都比结尾部分更容易被记住。
　　For example:
　　His name is long and rarely seen. I can only recall it begins with “Ja” and end with “son”. Caught by the bathtub effect again。
　　他的名字有点长而且很少见。我只记得是以Ja开头，以son结尾的。“浴缸效应”又犯了。