作者：Tom Stafford；译者：RK翔
A reader, Dan, asks "Why do we forget people's names when we first meet them? I can remember all kinds of other details about a person but completely forget their name. Even after a lengthy, in-depth conversation. It's really embarrassing.”
我的读者Dan寻味：“为什么陌生人相见，我可以记住其他任何细节，但是唯独他们的名字，我完全不记得？甚至有些明明都聊得很开的人（也记不起他的名字）。这太尴尬了。”
Fortunately the answer involves learning something fundamental about the nature of memory. It also provides a solution that can help you to avoid the embarrassing social situation of having spoken to someone for an hour, only to have forgotten their name.
幸运的是，这个答案涉及到记忆本身的形成原理（，而不是个人的原因）。同时，答案也为这种聊天很久却忘记名字的社交尴尬提供了解决办法。
To know why this happens you have to recognise that our memories aren't a simple filing system, with separate folders for each kind of information and a really brightly coloured folder labelled "Names".
为了解释这现象，你必须明白我们的记忆系统不是简单的储存归档，没有各种独立分管各种信息的文件夹，更没有彩色高亮出“姓名列表”的文件夹。
Rather, our minds are associative. They are built out of patterns of interconnected information. This is why we daydream: you notice that the book you're reading was printed in Paris, and that Paris is home to the Eiffel Tower, that your cousin Mary visited last summer, and Mary loves pistachio ice-cream. Say, I wonder if she ate a pistachio ice cream while up the Tower? It goes on and on like that, each item connected to every other, not by logic but by coincidence of time, place, how you learnt the information and what it means.
然而，记忆之间的关系千丝万缕。根据信息的互相关联度，记忆进行了整合。这也解释了我们发散思维的逻辑所在：你发现你眼下这本书是巴黎印刷，而巴黎有埃菲尔铁塔，而你姐姐Mary去年夏天去过那地方，而Mary最喜欢开心果味冰淇淋。话说，也不知道她有没有边吃冰淇淋边逛铁塔？思维就这样发散开去，每个事物都互相有些许联系，但不是逻辑关联，而是如时间、地点、渠道和含义等信息的重叠。
Names are often left floating in our memory like an anchor-less ship, without other associations to hold them down
在记忆中，姓名犹如一片片浮萍，没有事物与之联系和牵绊。
The same associative network means you can guess a question from the answer. Answer: "Eiffel Tower?" Question: “Paris's most famous landmark.” This makes memory useful, because you can often go as easily from the content to the label as vice versa: "what is in the top drawer?" isn't a very interesting question, but it becomes so when you want the answer "where are my keys?"
这种串联的记忆网络让人们可以根据问题猜答案。当问题是“巴黎著名的地标建筑”，人们会猜“埃菲尔铁塔”。这也让记忆更加有用，因为这让抽象和具象之间更紧密相连。这让毫无意义的“上面抽屉里有什么东西”问题，由于“我的钥匙去哪里了”问题的加入，变得有了些许含义。
So memory is built like this on purpose, and now we can see the reason why we forget names. Our memories are amazing, but they respond to how many associations we make with new information, not with how badly we want to remember it.
所以记忆如此架构是有其深层含义的。而我们也应该可以理解我们忘记人名的原因了。记忆的确非常神奇，但是它只在乎消息之间互相的联系度，而不关心我们想记住信息的主观能力。
When you meet someone for the first time you learn their name, but for your memory it is probably an arbitrary piece of information unconnected to anything else you know, and unconnected to all the other things you later learn about them. After your conversation, in which you probably learn about their job, and their hobbies, and their family or whatever, all this information becomes linked in your memory. Imagine you are talking to a guy with a blue shirt who likes fishing and works selling cars, but would rather give it up to sell fishing gear. Now if you can remember one bit of information ("sell cars") you can follow the chain to the others ("sells cars but wants to give it up", "wants to give it up to sell fishing gear", "loves fishing" and so on). The trouble is that your new friend's name doesn't get a look in because it is simply a piece of arbitrary information you didn’t connect to anything else about the conversation.
当你们初次见面，交换姓名时，从你记忆的角度，姓名其实是一条和所有已有认知，和短时间内的新认知都毫无联系的强加信息。而随着交谈的继续，你可能了解了对方的工作、爱好、家庭等其他信息，这些信息在你脑海中形成记忆链条并记下。举个例子，如果你和一个穿着蓝色上衣，喜欢钓鱼的车行销售聊天，知道想辞职卖渔具。那当你想到“卖汽车”，你会随着记忆链及其“车行销售却想去卖渔具”，“喜欢钓鱼”等信息。但问题是你那朋友的名字和这些信息都毫无关系，因为名字就是个强加信息，你无法和交谈中任何信息联系在一起。
Fortunately, there are ways to strengthen those links so it does become entrenched with the other memories. Here's how to remember the name, using some basic principles of memory.
幸好，还是有让名字和其他信息联系起来的办法的。以下就用记忆的基本原理教你如何记住姓名。
First, you should repeat any name said to you. Practice is one of the golden rules of learning: more practice makes stronger memories. In addition, when you use someone's name you are linking it to yourself, in the physical act of saying it, but also to the current topic of the conversation in your memory ("So, James, just what is it about fishing that makes you love it so much?").
首先，你应该重复你所听到的名字。多练习是学习的第一铁律：多练习意味着牢固的记忆力。而且当你说出对方的名字，你不仅仅是说出来，而且这也成为你眼下对话的记忆的一部分，例如：James，钓鱼这事情哪里这么吸引你呢？
Second, you should try to link the name you have just learnt to something you already know. It doesn't matter if the link is completely silly, it is just important that you find some connection to help the name stick in memory. For example, maybe the guy is called James, and your high school buddy was called James, and although this guy is wearing a blue shirt, high school James only ever wore black, so he'd never wear blue. It's a silly made up association, but it can help you remember.
其次，你要把刚刚听到的名字和你已知事物联系起来。其实完全不用管这种联系是可笑还是正常，你只是为了找到让你记住这种名字的联系而已。打个比方，你见到的那个人叫James，你高中死*党**也叫James，虽然这家伙穿蓝衬衫，而你高中James只穿黑色，不穿任何蓝色衣服。这种牵强的联系虽然蠢，但是它让你记住对方的名字。
Want to avoid embarrassment? Try to connect a name with any other information you know about the person. Even if the link is a little silly, it will stick.
如何避免这种尴尬？试着将人名和那个人的某种信息联系在一起。不管这种联系都牵强，你反正把名字记住了。
Finally, you need to try to link their name to something else about them. If it was me I'd grab the first thing to come to mind to bridge between the name and something I've learnt about them. For example, James is a sort of biblical name, you get the King James bible after all, and James begins with J, just like Jonah in the bible who was swallowed by the whale, and this James likes fishing, but I bet he prefers catching them to being caught by them.
最后，你要把他们的名字和他们其他信息联系起来。要是我的话，我会把肯定会首先把名字和想到的第一件事情联系在一起。比如，James算一个圣经人物的名字，目前King James版圣经最为权威，而James首字母是J，和圣经中Jonah相同，而Jonah最终被鲸鱼吞吃，而面前的James喜欢钓鱼，我肯定这家伙肯定喜欢抓鱼而不是被鱼抓。
It doesn't matter if the links you make are outlandish or weird. You don't have to tell anyone. In fact, probably it is best if you don't tell anyone, especially your new friend! But the links will help create a web of association in your memory, and that web will stop their name falling out of your mind when it is time to introduce them to someone else.
其实这种联系是冷僻还是奇怪，都没有关系。反正你不用告诉任何人。实际上，你最好不要说出来，特别是告诉你那个新朋友！但这种联系能帮助你的记忆建立信息网络。当你把新朋友介绍给其他人时，这些网络将帮助你回忆起他们的名字。
And if you're sceptical, try this quick test. I've mentioned three names during this article. I bet you can remember James, who isn't Jonah. And probably you can remember cousin Mary (or at least what kind of ice cream she likes). But you can you remember the name of the reader who asked the question? That's the only one I introduced without elaborating some connections around the name, and that's why I'll bet it is the only one you've forgotten.
如果你还有些怀疑，那就快速测试一下。本文中我提到了三个名字，我打赌你记住了James，而不是Jonah，我估计你可能记得姐姐Mary（至少记得冰淇淋这件事吧）。但你还能想起那个提出问题的读者吗？这是唯一一个我没有多加描述的人名，所以我也肯定你已经忘记了他。