研究:三個臭皮匠頂不上諸葛亮
Two heads aren't always better than one, at least when it comes to memory。
People who memorize facts in groups remember less than solo students do, according to a newly research. The group as a whole remembers more than any single memorizer would have, but the people in the group fail to live up to their full memory potential, each recalling less than if they'd studied alone。
On the other hand, according to study researcher Supama Rajaram, a psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York, other people's memories can enrich our own, as can be attested by anyone who suddenly recalls a long-ago event when another person starts telling a story。
One way people in groups tend to disrupt each other's memories is by encroaching on other's study habits. Everyone has preferred methods of picking information out of their minds, so working with others can be distracting. And then there's a phenomenon called "social contagion," in which one group member brings up an error or "remembers" something that didn't happen. Those erroneous memories can lodge in other group members' brains as real。
The overview appears in the April edition of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science。三個臭皮匠並不一定就頂得上諸葛亮，至少就記憶力而言是這樣。
最新研究表明，大家一起背東西的效果不如單獨記憶的效果好。按理來說，小組整體記憶要比單獨記憶的內容多，但是小組成員並不能發揮各自的最大記憶潛力，結果要比各自單獨記憶時的效果差。
而另一方面，據研究人員、紐約州立石溪大學心理學家Supama Rajaram稱，我們可藉助他人的記憶豐富頭腦，正如經驗證明一個人突然想起很久以前發生的事情時，另一個人便開始順下去講自己的故事。
組內成員干擾彼此記憶能力的其中一種方式便是打破別人的學習習慣。每個人都有特定的挑選信息的習慣，所以和他人一起學習可能會受到干擾。而且還有一種現象叫做“社會傳染”，即小組中其中一個成員出了錯或者“記起來”根本沒發生過的是事情。那些錯誤記憶便會成爲小組其他成員腦中的真實記憶。
研究刊登於4月號的《當代心理科學指南》。
