冥想世界:用冥思來改善記憶力大綱

Students who did about an hour of "mindfulness training" for eight days subsequently did better on the GRE as well as tests of working memory and mind-wandering.

假如一名學生在連續八天的時間裏每天做半小時的“正念冥思”，他在參加GRE考試或者做短期記憶力和注意力分散的測試時表現會更好。

Improving memory and ability to focus takes years of cultivation and training, but getting the most out of your abilities as they stand is another valuable skill.

問題：互聯網可能會損害我們的注意力週期和短期記憶，但公司仍要求員工“集中注意力”。同時，儘管標準化的考試成績很少能預測一位學生將來事業上是否成功，但高校的招生部門仍樂此不彼。改善記憶力和集中注意力的能力需要經過多年的培養和訓練，但盡最大可能把你已有的能力發揮出來也是一種有價值的技巧。

METHODOLOGY: Researchers at University of California at Santa Barbara had 48 undergraduate students take either a mindfulness class or a nutrition class. Classes met for 45 minutes four times per week for two weeks. They were taught by "professionals with extensive teaching experience in their respective fields." The mindfulness class "emphasized the physical posture and mental strategies of focused-attention meditation." As they describe that class more specifically:

方法：在聖芭芭拉的加州大學研究人員把48名大學生分成兩組，一組參加正念培訓班，另外一組參加營養學培訓班。這兩個培訓班都是每節課45分鐘，每週四節課，連續上兩週的課。學生們由在各自領域有豐富教學經驗的專業人員上課。正念培訓班的重點“在於做集中注意力冥思時所採用的身體姿勢和精神策略”。他們對這個班的學習內容做了具體的描述如下：

It required participants to integrate mindfulness into their daily activities and to complete 10 minutes of daily meditation outside of class. During class, participants sat on cushions in a circle. Each class included 10 to 20 minutes of mindfulness exercises requiring focused attention to some aspect of sensory experience (e.g., sensations of breathing, tastes of a piece of fruit, or sounds of an audio recording). ... Classes focused on:

要求參加者把冥思融入到日常生活的行爲當中，每天在課外完成10分鐘的冥思。上課時參加者圍坐在坐墊上，每節課包括10-20分鐘的冥思練習，要求把注意力集中到某種感官體驗上（如呼吸的感覺、一塊水果的味道，或播放錄音的聲音等）。上課的重點在於：

Sitting in an upright posture with legs crossed and gaze lowered, distinguishing between naturally arising thoughts and elaborated thinking

保持身體挺直雙腿盤坐的坐姿，目光低垂，辨別出自然產生的想法和故意的思維。

Minimizing the distracting quality of past and future concerns by reframing them as mental projections occurring in the present

通過改變思維方式把過去和未來關心的事項變成當下的精神投射以減少它們帶來的干擾。

Using the breath as an anchor for attention during meditation

在冥思時利用呼吸來做注意力的“錨地”（即把注意力集中到自己的呼吸上來）。

Repeatedly counting up to 21 consecutive exhalations [Ed. note: presume inhalations occurred as well.]

在數到21的時間裏連續吐氣，反覆做（設想在這期間也有吸氣發生）。

Allowing the mind to rest naturally rather than trying to suppress the occurrence of thoughts.

讓頭腦自然休息，不要試圖去壓制頭腦裏產生出來的思維。

The students in both classes took the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations; the standardized tests considered for grad school application) before and after the two-weeks of class, as well as tests of memory and distractibility, where they counted their "task-unrelated thoughts" while doing things that required concentration.

兩個班級的學生在上這兩星期課的先後都參加了GRE考試，還進行了記憶力和注意力分散的測試，在測試中他們對需要集中注意力時產生的“與任務無關的思維”進行了計數。

RESULTS: Scores improved in the mindfulness-trained group, but not the nutrition-trained group. For one, their average GRE verbal score went from 460 to, two weeks later, 520. They also improved on tests of working memory and focus (had fewer task-unrelated thoughts).

結果：參加正念培訓班的學生成績有了提高，但參加營養學培訓班的學生卻沒有改進。正念培訓班學生的GRE成績由兩週前的460分提高到了520分，對短期記憶力和注意力集中進行測試的成績也比以前有了提高（與任務無關思維的次數減少了）。

IMPLICATIONS: Taking time to think about your thoughts, breathing, posture, and the like can be valuable to overall cognitive functioning. This is the opposite of staying in a library for 86 hours fueled by Adderrall and anxiety. Kaplan's GRE prep course is $1, 299, and a ton of people buy it. Meditation is free, so while that much is invested, this is probably worth checking out. Even if you can't find time to meditate exactly, there's always a moment to think intensely about fruit or "your breathing as an anchor."

意義：花一點時間來思考一下你的思維、呼吸、姿勢以及諸如此類的事情對整體的認知功能會有好處，這樣做與待在圖書館裏86個小時靠吃安神丸來集中注意力正好相反。卡普蘭的GRE準備課程要賣1299美元，有許多人購買了這個課程，而冥思卻是免費的。既然這麼大的代價也捨得花，我們不妨來試一試冥思的功效。即便你沒有時間來做冥思，花上片刻時間來想一想水果的味道或者“把呼吸作爲集中注意力的錨地”總是可以的。