时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(九)月


英语课

You’ve heard of waterboarding used as a means to get suspected terrorists to talk. Some people object to such methods on the grounds that they amount to torture. But in the journal Trends in Cognitive 1 Sciences, psychologist Shane O’Mara of Trinity College in Dublin raises another objection: torture's not likely to work.


Proponents 2 claim that waterboarding's effective because prisoners will tell the truth to make the interrogation stop. But O’Mara says that’s not supported by scientific evidence. Harsh interrogation doesn’t motivate prisoners to tell the truth. It motivates them to talk. Because while they’re talking they’re not being waterboarded. But that doesn’t mean that what they say is true.


What’s more, prolonged extreme stress impairs 3 memory retrieval. American Special Ops soldiers have been shown to have trouble recalling things they’d learned before being subjected to food- or sleep-deprivation as part of their training. That’s because stress hormones 4 can compromise brain activity, especially in regions involved in memory.


O’Mara notes that mildly stressful events actually facilitate recall. So simply capturing, moving and then questioning prisoners, he says, should be stressful enough to get the information flowing.


 



1 cognitive
adj.认知的,认识的,有感知的
  • As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大,他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
  • The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。
2 proponents
n.(某事业、理论等的)支持者,拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )
  • Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
  • Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句
3 impairs
v.损害,削弱( impair的第三人称单数 )
  • Smoking impairs our health. 吸烟会损害我们的健康。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Almost anything that impairs liver function can cause hepatitis. 任何有损于肝功能的因素,几乎都会引起肝炎。 来自辞典例句
标签: SSS evidence
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accessory bodies
Alliaria
amenorrhoeal
american national thread
Ap-weight
apotemnophilia
apparent height
azaserine
banjo mandolins
Boula Bouda
calastic
carrier gas
celcius scale
china shop
cirrus sheet
clevinger
collagenosis therapeutics
command posts
common glow-worms
conational
constructional plant
cutesy-poo
Cytisus scoparius Link
D.E.W. line
damato
data-logging equipment
Deinotherioidea
digestive juices
Electro Gyro-Cator
energias
excentricities
extra-rinse
factors affecting response of testing
fissurated
Garcke
Giyani
grid technique
growth per rate
hardworking
inferior gluteal arterys
insulin unit
interface stability
iodohistamine
Kraslice
labor accounting
laminin-5
lattice-window
link macroinstruction
madrina
margo pupillaris
mermole
mesonephric sinus
metalation
mineral ore
missionary man
mudheaps
Mā'ili
native-english
neoseiulus longispinosus
nomarchs
non-protein respiratory quotient
obstfeld
on repeated occasions
packed in
phalaborwa
phoenicurus fuliginosa affinis
physical-ripening
polyubiquitinated
Pontederia
pot lead
power of slush pump
Pushd
pushed on
quadracci
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ravenhill
register controller
respiratory function constant
RNA transport
roentgenofluorescent analysis
rolling stock
rope splicing tool
sand-cast tube
sesamia inferens (walker)
sffac
shride
sorbopyranose
spur gear
statutory formula
Stipa tianschanica
strangled
stuff-shirted
syntheta
to a considerable degree
track gauge and level
tretin M
unblanking
uncountable aggragate
ungrizzled
unit solid angle
what in the world
worry something out