Most of us learn how to ride ai bike during childhood. As we grow older, we put those once beloved bikes in storerooms. Years later, when we discover these relics and jump on, it’s as if we never stopped biking.
This is surprising because our memories let us down in so many other situations. For example, we always fail to remember the name of a person we once knew or where we put our keys. So why can we ride a bicycle when we haven’t done so in years?
As it turns out, humans have different kinds of memories. Our long-term memory is divided into two types: declarative memory (陈述性记忆) and procedural memory.
There are two types of declarative memory. The first type is our memory of an event that happened. It can be the day we started school or a pleasant outing. Factual knowledge, on the other hand, such as the capital of France, belongs to the second type. These two types have one thing in common-you are aware of the knowledge and can communicate the memories to others.
Skills such as playing an instrument or riding a bicycle are, however, fixed in a separate system, called procedural memory. As its name shows, this type of memory is responsible for performance.
So is procedural knowledge more enduring than declarative knowledge? Yes, studies show the former is less likely to be lost. Even with serious brain injury, the procedural memory system is hardly ever damaged. That’s because structures responsible for processing it are relatively protected in the brain’s center.
However, it’s not clear, beyond brain damage, why procedural memory contents are not as easily forgotten as declarative ones are. According to one idea, in the regions where movement patterns are made, fewer new nerve cells (神经细胞) may be formed in adults. Without big changes. It’s less likely for memories in these regions to get erased.
So, one thing we know for sure is simple patterns of movements we get, even far in the past, are typically kept for a lifetime. Or as the saying goes, it’s “just like riding a bicycle”
8. Which of the following are declarative knowledge?
①A poem. ② Swimming. ③ A meeting. ④Running.
9. What does “enduring” underlined in Para. 6 mean?
A.Continuing for a very long time. |
B.Having a very great influence. |
C.Helping people in some way. |
D.Being difficult to keep. |
10. Why are movement patterns less likely to disappear according to Para. 7?
A.They are kept in a region without great changes. |
B.They are kept in a region that can’t be damaged. |
C.They are easier than other knowledge. |
D.They are practiced more often. |
11. Which can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Skills of an outstanding rider |
B.Different types of human memory |
C.Why don’t we forget how to ride a bike? |
D.How can we make memories last longer? |