There's little doubt that people's names are hard to remember. No, it's not just you, research suggests there's something unusual about names which makes them particularly tricky to recall. Indeed some researchers suggest that people's given names are the most difficult of all words to learn.
毫无疑问，人名是很难记的。是的，不仅仅只有你难以记得人名。研究表明，姓名里面拥有独特的东西，令它们难以被回忆起来。事实上，有科研研究表示，人们的名字是最难被记住的词。
One study gave participants fake names and biographies to study. Then they were tested on what they could remember. Here are the percentages for different pieces of information that were recalled:
某研究让实验者记住的一些假名和传记，测试他们能记忆的部分，籍此作为研究内容。以下是能被记住信息的比率：
Jobs: 69% 职业 69%
Hobbies: 68% 爱好 68%
Home towns: 62% 家乡 62%
First names: 31% 名字 31%
Last names: 30% 姓氏 30%
So names are more difficult to remember than what people do, what their hobbies are and where they come from. And, you won't be surprised to hear, as we age, most of us get even worse at remembering names.
因此，相对于那人的职业、爱好和家乡而言，人的姓名更难以被记得住。随着我们年龄越来越大，要记住别人的名字就更难了。
But, why?
但是，这是为什么呢？
All kinds of theories have been put forward. One is that lots of us have the same names. People guess that common first names like 'John' and surnames like 'Smith' are more difficult to remember because, on our minds, one John Smith interferes with another.
对此，人们给提了各式各样的理论。其一，大多数人拥有相同的名字。许多人表示，像“约翰”和“史密夫”这些大众化的姓氏和名字更难让人记得住，因为在我们的大脑里，一个约翰史密夫就能搞到记忆乱乱的。
Counter-intuitively, though, some research suggests common names are easier to recall than unusual names. Other research suggests the opposite so it's not exactly clear what is going on.
也许没想到的是，有研究表明大众化的姓名比那些不常见的容易被记得住，而有研究得出的则是相反的结果，那人们就更搞不清是是非非了。 1/2 12下一页尾页