瞬间忘记的“门口效应”

“俺到这儿干嘛来了？”这个问题，毫无疑问，你已经在从一个房间走到另一个房间的时候问过一遍了。好像我们突然被换了一个金鱼的大脑似的。不过别担心，你不是一个人在失忆！相反，这是一个非常普遍的现象，科学家们将它命名为“边界效应”，或者“门口效应”（The Doorway Effect）。

We’ve all done it. Run upstairs to get your keys, but forget that it is them you’re looking for once you get to the bedroom. Open the fridge door and reach for the middle shelf only to realise that we can't remember why we opened the fridge in the first place. Or wait for a moment to interrupt a friend to find that the burning issue that made us want to interrupt has now vanished from our minds just as we come to speak: “What did I want to say again?” we ask a confused audience, who all think “how should we know?!”
我们都有过这样的经历。跑上楼想去拿钥匙，结果刚走进卧室就忘记自己在找什么了。打开冰箱门，伸手探向中间那一层，却忘记自己究竟为什么要打开冰箱门。或是，和朋友交谈甚欢的时候，你突然想到了一件事，却找不到时机打断朋友，等这茬结束后，到嘴边的话却变成了：“我刚才想说什么来着？”你的朋友也是一头雾水，“我们怎么知道你想说什么？”

Although these errors can be embarrassing, they are also common. It’s known as the “Doorway Effect”, and it reveals some important features of how our minds are organised.
虽然这些“失误”让人很尴尬，但这种现象却十分普遍。它被称作是“门口效应”（Doorway Effect），它揭示出了一些重要的特征，让我们知道思维是如何组织起来的。

The Doorway Effect occurs because we change both the physical and mental environments, moving to a different room and thinking about different things.
发生“门口效应”这一现象是因为我们所处的外在环境和心理环境都发生了改变。我们走进另一间屋子，心里想着别的事。

Understanding this might help us appreciate those temporary moments of forgetfulness as more than just an annoyance (although they will still be annoying).
理解这个现象或许能够让我们学会享受这些暂时失忆的瞬间，而不再是一味地感到烦恼（尽管它们确实依然很让人烦心）。

（中国日报网英语点津 yaning）

部分中文素材来自互动百科