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Okay, pop quiz: What did you have for lunch yesterday?
我们来进行一个突击测验：你昨天午饭吃的什么?
What about the day before?
前天呢？
How about last Tuesday?
上周二呢?
You might remember yesterday, but you probably don't remember last week.
你可能记得昨天，但你可能不记得上周。
And even if you have a guess, you might have some nagging doubts that it was something else.
你即使有一个猜测，但也可能怀疑有其它的答案。
Now think of the most vivid memory you have.
现在想想你的那些最清晰的记忆。
Maybe it was when one of your grandparents passed away.
也许是你的祖父母去世
Or when you graduated from high school. Or your first break up.
或者你高中毕业，或者你的第一次分手。
You probably remember all sorts of details from what happened, like where you were, who you were with,
你可能记得发生的所有细节，比如你在哪里，和谁在一起，
and even the exact words someone said or the clothes you were wearing.
甚至是某人说的话或者你穿的衣服。
Psychologists call these super detailed memories flashbulb memories.
心理学家称这些超级详细的记忆为闪光灯记忆。
They get seared into your brain, and you're sure you remember everything about your experience, even years afterward, as if it were yesterday.
这些记忆会烙进你的大脑，甚至几年之后，你都会记得所有关于你经历的事情，仿佛是昨天发生的一样。
But even your most vivid memories might not be as reliable as you think they are.
但即使最清晰的记忆也可能不像你想象的那么可靠。
I'm Brit Garner, and this is SciShow Psych.
我是Brit Garner，这里是心理科学秀。
The term "flashbulb memory" was coined by psychologists Robert Brown and James Kulik in 1977, to describe the vivid memories people have after emotionally intense events.
“闪光灯记忆”一词是由心理学家罗伯特·布朗和詹姆斯·库利克于1977年提出，用来描述人们在情绪紧张事件后的清晰记忆。
Many of the people Brown and Kulik talked to said the events that caused these memories were upsetting events in the news like the assassinations of President Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr.
与布朗和库利克交谈过的许多人表示，这些清晰的记忆和令人不安的新闻事件有关，比如肯尼迪总统遇刺或小马丁·路德·金遇刺。
We don't know exactly how flashbulb memories form,
我们不知道闪光灯记忆是如何形成的，
but based on fMRI brain scans, scientists think two main parts of the brain are involved:
但是根据功能磁共振成像扫描，科学家认为大脑的两个主要部分参与其中:
the hippocampus, which helps form new memories, and the amygdala, which processes emotions.
帮助形成新记忆的海马体和负责情绪的杏仁核。
These memories can be difficult to study because the best way to do a good experiment is after an unexpected, major news event —
这些记忆研究起来可能很难，因为实验在意想不到的重大新闻事件之后进行效果最好
and researchers can't really plan for that in advance.
而且研究人员也没法提前规划。
Despite that, we've learned a fair amount over the years.
尽管如此，经过多年研究，我们还是学到了不少知识。
We know, for example, that people create flashbulb memories around traumatic events,
例如，我们知道，闪光灯记忆的产生和创伤事件有关，
but they don't always have to be negative experiences.
但创伤事件并不一定都是负面经历。
In 2007, researchers found that both East and West Germans formed flashbulb memories about the fall of the Berlin Wall,
2007年，研究人员发现东德和西德人都形成了柏林墙倒塌的闪光灯记忆
regardless of whether they thought it was a good or a bad thing.
不管他们认为这是好事还是坏事。
We also know that even though these memories are super vivid, they're not necessarily accurate.
我们也知道，这些记忆即使非常清晰也不一定准确。
That's probably because people tend to think and talk about vivid memories a lot.
这可能是因为人们往往会思考和谈论很多清晰的记忆。
Psychologists call this rehearsing a memory, and flashbulb memories can get rehearsed many, many times.
心理学家称之为排练记忆，而闪光灯记忆可以被排练很多次。
But the rehearsal process isn't perfect.
但排练过程并不完美。
Your brain will often try to fill gaps in your memory with things that might feel like they're true, but really aren't.
你的大脑会经常试图用一些感觉是对的、但实际上不对的东西来填补你记忆中的空白。
So if you're rehearsing a flashbulb memory, and something fits the pattern of the event you're thinking about,
所以如果你在研究闪光灯记忆，某些事和你思考事件的模式很契合，
your brain can make it part of the memory without you even realizing.
大脑会让这些事成为你记忆的一部分，甚至你自己都没有意识到。
Studies done on flashbulb memories after 9/11 helped confirm this.
9/11事件后的闪光灯记忆研究证实了这一点。
Researchers realized that the horrible tragedy probably generated flashbulb memories in a lot of people, so they started doing studies.
研究人员意识到，很多人可能都会对9/11事件这个可怕的悲剧产生闪光灯记忆，所以研究人员开始研究。
For example, one group at Duke University quickly gathered 54 volunteers and asked them to describe their experiences on that day.
例如，杜克大学的一个小组迅速召集了54名志愿者，要求他们描述当天的经历。
The participants were also asked to describe another, more ordinary event that had happened a couple days before.
参与者还被要求描述几天前发生的另一件更普通的事情。
Then, the researchers brought the participants back either 1, 6, or 32 weeks later and asked them to recall both memories.
然后，研究人员让参与者在1周、6周或32周后回忆这两个事件。
Their descriptions of the ordinary events got less accurate over time, which wasn't surprising.
随着时间的推移，他们对普通事件的描述越来越不准确，这并不奇怪。
When asked, the volunteers all said that the much-more-vivid 9/11 memory would be more consistent.
当被问及哪个记忆的描述前后一致，志愿者们都表示，9/11的记忆描述前后一致。
But here's the thing: the subjects' memories of what they did on 9/11 were just as inconsistent as the ordinary memories from the same time.
但有这样一个问题：研究对象对9/11事件的记忆与同一时期的普通记忆不一致。
People felt like they remembered vivid details from 9/11,
人们觉得他们记得9/11事件的生动细节，
but those details were different from what they told to the researchers right after it happened.
但实际细节与他们在实验后立即告诉研究人员的内容不同。
In fact, 42% of the inconsistencies in both kinds of memories came from the distinctive details the subjects thought were true.
事实上，这两个记忆中不一致的42%来自于受试者认为的真实独特的细节。
In another, larger study, 2,000 people were surveyed about their memories of finding out about the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
另一项规模更大的研究调查了2000人对911恐怖袭击的记忆。
They responded to surveys one week, 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years after the attacks, and their memories of the details became less consistent over time.
他们在袭击事件发生1周、1年、3年和10年后对调查进行了回应，随着时间的推移，他们对细节的记忆变得不那么一致。
On average, by the time people took the survey 3 years after the the attacks, they only remembered 57% of the details accurately,
通常，当人们在袭击发生3年后进行调查时，他们只能准确记住57%的细节，
even though they were sure they were remembering right.
尽管他们确信自己的记忆是正确的。
10 years after the attacks, the accuracy was about the same — so people's memories got less accurate at first, but then stabilized.
袭击发生10年之后，准确率几乎相同——所以人们的记忆一开始不那么准确，但随后稳定下来。
So what does this mean for your flashbulb memories?
那么这对你的闪光灯记忆意味着什么呢?
Well, not everything in a flashbulb memory is completely wrong.
嗯，并不是所有的闪光灯记忆都是完全错误的。
The basics of what happened are probably accurate.
所发生的事情可能基本准确。
But the vivid details that make it feel so fresh – those are a lot less trustworthy.
但生动的细节让人感觉像是刚发生的一样——这些都不那么可信。
Even if they feel like they happened yesterday, your flashbulb memories aren't perfect.
即使他们觉得就像是昨天发生的一样，闪光灯记忆也并不完美。
Thank you for watching this episode of SciShow Psych,
感谢收看本集心理科学秀，
and a special thank you to all of our supporters on Patreon — you make this show possible.
特别感谢Patreon对本节目的支持。
If you want to help us keep making episodes like this, and get access to cool rewards like an exclusive calendar and bloopers, check out patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想帮助我们继续制作这样的剧集，并获取奖品，比如独家日历和引起杂音的收音机，那就登陆patreon.com/scishow吧。
And if you want to keep learning more about the human mind,
如果你想继续了解人类的思维，
go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe!
去youtube.com/scishowpsych订阅我们的节目吧!
