In psychology, memory is an organism’s mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology.
在心理学中，记忆是一种储存、保持和回忆信息的机体智能。传 统上关于记忆的研究始于哲学，其中包含人为地提高记忆能力的技 巧。19世纪末期和20世纪早期,记忆研究划人了认知心理学的研究 领域。
It consists of short-term and long-term memories. Short-term memory allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal. By contrast, long-term memory can store much larger quantities of information for potentially unlimited duration (sometimes a whole life span).
记忆分短时记忆和长时记忆。短时记忆允许在几秒钟到几分钟 的时间内不经重复仍能回忆。相比而言，长时记忆能储存更多的信 息,有可能储存无限长的时间(有时一生都能记得)。
Some interesting examples about memory are as below:
下面是一些关于记忆的有趣的例子：
Around 15 million of us will leave a cup of tea to go cold today while a similar amount will forget where they put the keys to their house or car.
现在大约有1500万成年人会把茶放到冷掉而忘记去喝,也有数 量相近的人会忘记自己把家里或车的钥匙放在哪里了。
Meanwhile, 12 million go to the shops only to completely forget what they went for and the same will forget about wet washing in the machine, according to research carried out by National-Lottery.co.uk.
同时，根据全国彩票网（National-Lottery. co. uk)的调査，约 1200万成年人去商店时会完全忘记自己打算买什么东西，或者会 忘记湿衣服还放在洗衣机里。
PIN, passwords and chores such as taking food out of the freezer the night before and charging your mobile phone also featured highly on the list. And more than one in ten admits forgetting to buy a lottery ticket that may have cost them a win.
排在“易忘清单”前列的还有：个人识别号码、密码和一些杂 务，例如前一天晚上把食物从冰箱中拿出来,给手机充电等。有多于 1/10的人会承认忘记买可能中奖的彩票。
The study also found men are more likely to forget things than women—even though women generally have more to remember.
研究还发现男人比女人更健忘，尽管女人要记的东西一般比男 人多。
Modem hectic lifestyles and increased workloads and pressures as well as modem technology were blamed for the increase in our levels of forgetfulness.
现代繁忙的生活方式、日益繁重的工作负担和压力，以及现代 科技的发展是造成我们越来越健忘的原因。
A National Lottery spokesman said: “Brits are busier than ever in their work and personal lives and it seems we just have too much to remember for our crowded minds.’，
全国彩票的发言人说:“英国人的工作和个人生活越来越忙，我们 似乎有太多的东西要记。”
The study found the technology boom has also played a part, leaving us with more gadgets than ever before to plug in and charge or take care of.
研究发现科技发展也是造成我们健忘的原因之一，我们有比以往更多的机件要插入电源、充 电或处理。
Despite work pressures it is within the home environment where most things are forgotten, such as credit card payments, children's school events or food related things.
尽管工作压力比较大,但是最容易忘事的地方却是在家里，比如结算信用卡款额、孩子学校里 的事情或是与食物相关的琐事。
The study found one in four people have missed an important appointment and nearly one in five have fallen out with a friend over a forgotten date or event.
研究发现有1/4的人曾错过一次重要的约会,几乎有1/5的人由于忘记约定时间或失约而与朋 友闹翻。
It also emerged that despite the number of things we forget only one in four people actually admit they are forgetful.
尽管我们忘记的事情如此之多，但是只有1/4的人愿意承认他们是健忘的。
Women fared much better than men in the report, failing to recall an average of two and a half things every day compared to 3.5 things for men.
报告显示，女人的记忆能力比男人的要好得多，女人平均每天会忘记2.5件事，而男人平均每 天则会忘记3.5件事。
However, it is inconclusive that memory may be improved via simple lifestyle changes such as undertaking memory exercises, eating healthily, engaging in moderate physical activity, and reducing stress.
然而，我们还不确定记忆能力是否可以通过进行记忆训练、健康饮食、适当的体育锻炼以及减 压调节等简单的生活方式的改变来得到提高。