WASHINGTON -- Your parents were right, don't study with the TV on.

华盛顿--你的父母是对的：学习时不要开着电视。



Multitasking may be a necessity in today's fast-paced world, but new research shows distractions affect the way people learn, making the knowledge they gain harder to use later on.

在如今快节奏的社会中，同时做几件事也许是必须的，但新研究表明分心会影响人们的学习方式，使他们日后较难运用到所学的知识。



"What's new is that even if you can learn while distracted, it changes how you learn to make it less efficient and useful," said Russell A. Poldrack, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

洛杉矶加利福尼亚大学的心理学教授罗素·A·波德瑞克说："新的发现是即使你在受到干扰的情况下仍然可以学习，你的学习方式也会因此而改变，你的学习效率会变低，效果会变差。"

As Poldrack explains it, the brain learns in two different ways. One, called declarative learning, deals with learning active facts that can be recalled and used with great flexibility. The second is called habit learning.

正如波德瑞克所解释的那样，大脑有两种不同的学习方式，一种叫做叙述式学习，用来学习积极内容，即人们可以回忆起来并能很灵活地加以运用的东西。第二种叫习惯性学习。

For instance, in learning a phone number you can simply memorize it, using declarative learning, and can then recall it whenever needed.

比方说你记一个电话号码，你可以直接通过叙述式学习方式把它记住，无论何时需要都能回忆起来。第二种就是习惯性地记住它。

"A second way to learn it is by habit, "punch it in 1,000 times, then even if you don't remember it consciously, you can go to the phone and punch it in," Poldrack said.

"拨个1000次，不管你是否有意识地去记它，你走到电话前就能拨出那个号码、"波德瑞克解释说。

Memorizing is a lot more useful, he pointed out. "If you use the habit system, you have to be at a phone to recreate the movements."

他指出（叙述式学习方式的）记忆要有用得多，"如果你使用习惯性学习方法，你就得到电话机旁去重现场景。"

The problem, Poldrack said, is that the two types of learning seem to be competing with each other, and when someone is distracted, habit learning seems to take over from declarative learning.

波德瑞克说问题就在于这两种学习方法似乎会彼此抗衡，当一个人分心时，习惯式学习方式似乎会取代叙述式学习方式。
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