托福閱讀材料之考試助于學習

　　Tests aren't just a way for teachers to torture their students, according to a new study that finds the brain encodes better mental hints during test-taking than during studying alone.

　　考試不僅僅是老師用來折磨學生的手段，因為最新研究表明，考試時大腦消化吸收學習材料的效果要比只是學習看書時產(chǎn)生的效果好一些。

　　Although many people view tests as a way to mark and grade students' progress, research has found that the act of retrieving information from memory actually makes remembering it easier. In other words, tests improve learning.

　　人們把考試視作給學生進步打分的工具，然而研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，從記憶中檢索信息這一行為可使人們記東西更加容易。換句話說，考試能讓你學識淵博。

　　The study author Mary Pyc, a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis and her co-author Katherine Rawson investigated pieces of information called "mediators." Mediators are concepts, ideas or phrases that connect one piece of information to another. To be a good mediator, the idea has to be both easy to remember and easy to link to the information you're trying to retrieve.

　　該研究論文的撰稿人、華盛頓大學博士后瑪麗-佩克和她的同事凱瑟琳-羅森著手于研究名為“介質”的信息碎片。“介質”實際上就是一些概念、觀點或者短語，它們是連接各條信息的橋梁。要成為優(yōu)質“介質”，相關觀點必須易記且和你要檢索的信息相關。

　　To investigate the effect of testing on mediators, Pyc and Rawson had 118 English-speaking participants learn 48 Swahili words. Some of the learners took tests on the information and then got to restudy the material before being tested again. Others only studied and restudied without tests.

　　為了調查考試對“介質”產(chǎn)生的效果，佩克和羅森讓118名講英語人士學習48個斯瓦希里語的單詞。在之后的實驗中，一部分學習者對所學內(nèi)容進行測試，然后在再次測試前重新學習。而另一些人則只是學習、再學習，沒有測試。

　　A week after learning the words, each group took a final test. Some tests required them to give the English translation from the Swahlii word alone. Another group got a test that gave them the Swahili word plus the mediator they'd used when learning the words. A third group not only had to translate the word, but they also had to remember and write down their mediator word.

　　一周后，每組都會進行一次期終考試。一組被要求寫出斯瓦希里語某些單詞的意思，而另一組則在釋義時研究者給他們看了自己學習時曾使用的“介質”。第三組不僅需要給單詞釋義，還要記住并寫下自己當時使用的“介質”。

　　Overall, the group that took practice tests did three times better than the study-only group. In addition, more test practice made for better mediators. Those who had to recall both their mediator and the translation got scores averaging 51 percent if they'd been in the pretesting group and just 34 percent if they'd only studied. Those who didn't have to remember their mediator, just link it to the translation, also did much better if they'd completed practice tests.

　　總體來講，經(jīng)常做測試的那一組的考試結果要比不做測試的那一組好出三倍。此外，測試較多使得學習者使用的“介質”也較好。需要回憶“介質”以及釋義的小組成員中，先前在測試較多小組中學習的成員平均分為51分，而那些曾在不測試小組中學習過的成員平均僅為34分。而在考試中不被要求回憶“介質”只需釋義的人群，倘若之前做過較多測試，考試成績也要好得多。