Most episodes of absent-mindedness - forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room - are caused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded it deeply.”
Schacter说，大多数心不在焉的情况——忘记把东西放在哪里，或者想知道为什么刚进房间——都是由于注意力不集中引起的。“你应该记住一些东西，但你没有把它深度编码。”
Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in you wardrobe. “Your memory itself isn’t failing you,” says Schacter. “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”
Schacter解释说，编码是一种关注事件的特殊方式，对以后回忆起事件有重大影响。未能正确编码可能会造成令人讨厌的情况。例如，如果你把手机放在口袋里，因为你在谈话而不注意自己做了什么，你可能会忘记夹克里的手机现在挂在了衣柜里。“你的记忆力本身并没有让你失望，”Schacter说，“而是，你没有给你的记忆系统所需的信息。”
Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago,” says Zelinski, “may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.” Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on just that.
缺乏兴趣也会导致心不在焉。泽林斯基说：“一个能背诵30年前体育统计数据的男人，可能不记得在邮箱里投过一封信。”女性的记忆力比男性略好，可能是因为她们更关注自己的环境，而记忆力正是依赖于此。
Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. “But be sure the cue is clear and available,” he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.
Schacter说，视觉提示有助于防止心不在焉。他警告：“但要确保提示是明确的和可用的。”如果你想记住午饭时服药，就把药瓶放在厨房的桌子上——不要把它放在药箱里，给自己写一张纸条，放在口袋里。
Another common episode of absent-mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time,” says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.
心不在焉的另一个常见现象是：走进一个房间，想知道自己为什么会在那里。很可能，你在考虑别的事情。泽林斯基说：“每个人都会时不时地这样做”。最好的做法是回到进入房间前的位置，你很可能会记起。
网友评论