Sleep Away Your Bad Attitudes
來源: http://thankyoubrain.blogspot.jp/2015/06/sleep-away-your-bad-attitudes.html
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Generally speaking, you cannot learn from sounds of new information while you sleep, though this was a fad /f?d/ several decades ago. But in an earlier post, I discussed a new line of research where sleep learning can occur. The key is to play sound cues/kju/ that were associated with learning that occurred during the previous wakefulness? /‘wekf?ln?s/ period. The explanation I posted was that cue-dependent sleep learning can work because a normal function of sleep is to strengthen memories of new information and that presenting relevant cues during sleep increases the retrieval/r?'trivl/ of these memories and makes them accessible for rehearsal/r?'h?sl/ and strengthening/'stre?θ?ni?/.
fad /f?d/
* n. 時尚；一時的愛好；一時流行的狂熱
* cues/kju/
* n. 開端，線索；提示，關鍵；球桿；誘因（cue的復數(shù)形式）
wakefulness /‘wekf?ln?s/
* n. [生理] 覺醒；不眠
* retrieval/r?'trivl/
* n. 檢索；恢復；取回；拯救
* rehearsal/r?'h?sl/
* n. 排演；預演；練習；訓練；敘述
* strengthening/'stre?θ?ni?/
* v. 強化；加固（strengthen的ing形式）
* n. 加強；加固；加固件
The latest experiment by a different group shows that this cuing during sleep can modify bad attitudes and habits. The test involved counter stereotype-training of certain biased/'ba??st/ attitudes during wakefulness, and investigators reactivated that counter-training during sleep by playing a sound cue that had been associated with the wakefulness training.
biased/'ba??st
* adj. 有偏見的；結果偏倚的，有偏的
stereotype-training 刻板的訓練
In the experiment, before a 90-minute nap /n?p/, 40 white males and females were trained to counter their existing gender and racial/'re?l/ biases by counter-training. A formal/'f?rml/ surveyed allowed quantification of each person's level of gender or racial bias before and after counter-training. For example, one bias was that females are not good at math. Subjects were conditioned/k?n'd???nd/ to have a more favorable attitude about women and math with counter-training that repeatedly associated female faces with science-related words.
nap /n?p/
* n. 小睡，打盹兒；細毛；孤注一擲
* vt. 使拉毛
* vi. 小睡；疏忽
* n. (Nap)人名；(朝、越)納
* racial/‘re?l/
* adj. 種族的；人種的
* formal/‘f?rml/
* adj. 正式的；拘謹?shù)?；有條理的
* n. 正式的社交活動；夜禮服
* n. (Formal)人名；(法)福馬爾
Subjects
* n. 學科；科目（subject的復數(shù)）；[圖情] 主題；被試者
* v. 使服從；使經(jīng)受；提交（subject的三單形式）
* conditioned/k?n'd???nd/
* adj. 有條件的，受制約的；習慣于…的
* v. 使適應（condition的過去分詞）；以…為條件
Similarly/‘s?m?l?li/, racial bias toward blacks was countered by associating black faces with highly positive words. In each training situation, whenever the subject saw a pairing that was incompatible with their existing bias they pressed a "correct" button, which yielded /jild/ a confirmatory/k?n'f??m?t?r?/ sound tone that was unique for each bias condition. Subjects were immediately tested for their learning by showing a face (female or black) and the counter-training cue, whereupon they were to drag the appropriate bias-free face on to a screen with the positive word. For example, if the first test screen was that of a woman, accompanied by the sound cue, the subject dragged a woman's face onto a second screen that said "good at math." Results revealed that this conditioning worked: both kinds of bias were reduced immediately after counter-conditioning.
yielded /jild/
1. vt. 出產；屈服；放棄
2. vi. 屈服，投降
3. n. 收益；產量
4. confirmatory/k?n'f??m?t?r?/adj. 確定的,證實的
Then during the nap, as soon as EEG signs indicated the presence of deep sleep, the appropriate sound cue was played repeatedly to reactivate the prior learning. When subjects re-took the bias survey a week later, the social bias was reduced in the sound-cued group, but not in the control group that was trained without sound cues.
Experimenters noted that the long-term improvement of bias was associated with rapid-eye-movement (REM) (dream) sleep which often followed the deep sleep during early stages of the nap. That is, the beneficial/?b?n?'f??l/ effect was proportional /pr?'p?r??nl/ to the amount of nap time spent in both slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, not either alone. It may be that memories are reactivated by cuing during deep (slow-wave) sleep, but that the actual cell-level storage of memory is provided by REM sleep.
proportional /pr?'p?r??nl/ adj. 比例的, 成比例的
Implications of this approach to enhancing learning and memory show a great deal of promise. Can it be used for enhancing learning in school? Can it be used in rehabilitation/?rih??b?l??te??n/ of addicts or criminals/'kr?m?nl/? But there is a dark side. Now might be a good time to re-read Huxley's Brave New World wherein he actually described conditioning values in young children while they slept. Sleep is a state where people are mentally vulnerable /'v?ln?r?bl/ and without conscious /'kɑn??s/ control over their thoughts. Malevolent /m?'l?v?l?nt/ people could impose this kind of conditioning and memory enhancement on others for nefarious? /n??f?ri?s/ purposes. These techniques may have valid social engineering applications, but they must be guided by ethical /‘?θ?kl/ considerations.
rehabilitation/?rih??b?l??te??n/
1. n. 修復;復興
2. 復職;恢復名譽,昭雪
3. (病殘人的)康復,更新;(罪犯的)改過遷善
4. criminals/'kr?m?nl/
5. n. 罪犯
6. adj. 犯罪的；刑事的；罪惡的
7. vulnerable /'v?ln?r?bl/
8. adj. 易受攻擊的，易受…的攻擊；易受傷害的；有弱點的
9. conscious /‘kɑn??s/
10. Malevolent /m?'l?v?l?nt/adj. 有惡意的;惡毒的
nefarious /n??f?ri?s/adj. 極壞的;惡毒的
ethical/‘?θ?kl/
1. adj. 道德的；倫理的；憑處方出售的
2. n. 處方藥
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The latest experiment by a different group shows that this cuing during sleep can modify bad attitudes and habits.
Implications of this approach to enhancing learning and memory show a great deal of promise.
