How music takes us back to our past 音乐如何勾起我们的回忆？

 

　　你有没有过这种经历：当广播中响起一首歌时，你仿佛回到了第一次听到这首歌的地方？音乐似乎能唤醒的记忆，这是为什么？本期节目探讨音乐如何让记忆驻留。

　　词汇：music 音乐

　　It's happened to all of us: a song comes on the radio, and we are immediately transported to a time in our past. But what is it that makes music so effective at doing this?

　　There are a few things that link tunes with our memories. Paul Donoghue, writing for ABC News, reminds us that the emotional nature of music helps make it particularly memorable. And Kelly Jakubowski, an assistant professor in music psychology, adds that music and singing are often part of many important life events and rituals, and that it is also very effective in grabbing our attention. These things combined mean that music and these life events are likely to be encoded together in our memories.

　　Music itself is easy to remember. Tiffany Jenkins, writing for BBC Culture, tells us how throughout history oral cultures have passed important knowledge from generation to generation through song. The rhythm, rhyme, melody and alliteration in lyrics all serve as memory aids.

　　She goes on to say that pop music especially can be associated with a particular moment in time. As Shahram Heshmat, writing in Psychology Today highlights, we often become familiar with a piece of music because we hear it as background music. Familiarity is important. Jakubowski, tells us that the more familiar a piece of music is, the more effective it is at bringing back memories. This applies to music more than other cultural products because we are far more likely to hear a song over and over again than watch a film or a TV programme in the same way. Heshmat points out that our musical preferences usually form during our teens, and this corresponds with what many experts call the 'reminiscence bump', where we make our strongest memories between the ages of 10 and 30.

　　It's clear that our memories and music are closely linked – to the point that music is being used to help dementia sufferers access memories that they thought they had lost.

　　词汇表

　　song 歌，歌曲

　　come on the radio 在广播中播放

　　tune 旋律，曲子

　　music psychology 音乐心理学

　　singing 歌唱

　　through song 以歌曲的形式

　　rhythm 节奏，韵律

　　rhyme 押韵

　　melody 旋律，曲调

　　alliteration 头韵

　　lyrics 歌词

　　pop music 流行音乐

　　piece of music 一段音乐

　　background music 背景音乐

　　cultural product 文化产品

　　musical preferences 音乐偏好