第1880期:How music takes us back to our past

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.

我们所有人都经历过这样的事：收音机里响起一首歌，我们立刻就回到了过去的时光。但是什么让音乐如此有效地做到这一点呢？有一些东西可以将音乐与我们的记忆联系起来。美国广播公司新闻 (ABC News) 的保罗·多诺霍 (Paul Donoghue) 提醒我们，音乐的情感本质有助于使其特别令人难忘。音乐心理学助理教授凯利·雅库博夫斯基补充说，音乐和唱歌往往是许多重要生活事件和仪式的一部分，而且它在吸引我们的注意力方面也非常有效。这些东西结合起来意味着音乐和这些生活事件很可能被一起编码在我们的记忆中。

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.

音乐本身很容易记住。蒂芙尼·詹金斯 (Tiffany Jenkins) 为 BBC 文化撰稿，告诉我们历史上口头文化如何通过歌曲代代相传重要的知识。歌词中的节奏、韵律、旋律和头韵都是辅助记忆的。

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.

她接着说，流行音乐尤其可以与特定的时刻联系起来。正如沙赫拉姆·赫什马特 (Shahram Heshmat) 在《今日心理学》中所强调的那样，我们常常会因为听到一首音乐作为背景音乐而熟悉它。熟悉很重要。雅库博夫斯基告诉我们，一首音乐越熟悉，它就越能有效地唤起人们的记忆。与其他文化产品相比，这一点更适用于音乐，因为我们更有可能一遍又一遍地听到一首歌，而不是以同样的方式观看电影或电视节目。Heshmat 指出，我们的音乐偏好通常在青少年时期形成，这与许多专家所说的“记忆高峰”相对应，即我们在 10 岁到 30 岁之间形成最强烈的记忆。

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.

很明显，我们的记忆和音乐密切相关——以至于音乐被用来帮助痴呆症患者恢复他们认为已经失去的记忆。

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