If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你總是想不起別人的名字，總忘記數(shù)字，或者常常跟不上電影劇情，那就來(lái)看看科學(xué)家的建議吧。

　　Scientists say memory lapses can be blamed on too much irrelevant information

　　大腦經(jīng)常短路？你需要進(jìn)行記憶大掃除

　　If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你總是想不起別人的名字，總忘記數(shù)字，或者常常跟不上電影劇情，那就來(lái)看看科學(xué)家的建議吧。

　　Scientists say the problem is that you know too much – and you need to declutter, or spring-cleanyour mind.

　　科學(xué)家表示，出現(xiàn)這一情況是因?yàn)椤澳阒赖奶嗔恕保枰謇硪幌滤季S，或者來(lái)個(gè)“大掃除”。

　　Experiments show that the memory lapsesthat come with age are not simply due to brain slowing down.

　　試驗(yàn)顯示，隨著年齡增長(zhǎng)而出現(xiàn)的記憶衰退并不僅僅是因?yàn)榇竽X思維減慢。

　　Instead, they can be blamed on the well-used brain finding it more and more difficult to stop irrelevant information interfering with the task in hand.

　　相反，這可能是因?yàn)檫\(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)良好的大腦發(fā)現(xiàn)防止無(wú)用信息干擾手頭工作越來(lái)越困難了。

　　The first step in the study was to compare the working memory of the young and old. Working memory involves holding information in mind while manipulating it mentally.

　　研究首先對(duì)比了年輕人和老年人的工作記憶，包括在思考時(shí)將信息牢記于心。

　　In the context of the study, it involved giving the volunteers groups of sentences and asking them to work out whether each line made sense – and to remember the last word of each sentence.

　　研究人員在實(shí)驗(yàn)中給了受試者一組句子，要求他們指出每行句子是否有意義，并記住每句的最后一個(gè)單詞。

　　Overall, the younger people, who had an average age of 23, did better, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology reports.

　　《實(shí)驗(yàn)心理學(xué)季刊》報(bào)告稱，總體來(lái)看，平均年齡為23歲的年輕人表現(xiàn)更好。

　　The Canadian researchers then did a second experiment to see what was hindering the older volunteers, who had an average age of 67.

　　加拿大的研究人員隨后進(jìn)行了另一項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)，以找出妨礙老年受試者記憶的因素。老年受試者平均年齡為67歲。

　　This involved being shown a picture of eight animals and being asked to memorise the order in which the creatures appeared.

　　其中一項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)是給受試者一張畫有八只動(dòng)物的圖片，讓他們記住動(dòng)物的順序。

　　The volunteers were then shown dozens of the pictures and asked to click on their computer mouse when the first animal in their memorised sequence occurred, then the second and so on.

　　受試者隨后會(huì)看到幾十張圖片，并按記憶中動(dòng)物的順序點(diǎn)擊鼠標(biāo)。

　　The older adults found it more difficult to progress, suggesting the previous picture was stuck in their mind.

　　老年受試者更難完成實(shí)任務(wù)，這表明之前的圖片給他們留下的印象太深刻了。

　　Mervin Blair, of Montreal’s Concordia University, said: ‘We found that the older adults had more difficulty in getting rid of previous information.’

　　加拿大蒙特利爾的康科迪亞大學(xué)的默文 布萊爾說(shuō)：“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)老年人更難擺脫掉原有信息的影響。”

　　Previous research has found that the part of the brain that keeps embarrassing thoughts in checkalso weakens with age, leading to people losing some of their inhibitions.

　　之前的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，可阻擋尷尬想法的大腦部分也會(huì)隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)而退化，導(dǎo)致人們有時(shí)無(wú)法自控。

　　In other words, outspokenold people aren't being rude - they just can't hold their tongues.

　　換句話說(shuō)，講話直白的老年人并不是無(wú)禮，他們只是管不住自己的嘴。