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
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alkalinizes
anti-Witness
atmospheric ozone content
atomic number 64
automated direct access to information
bacillus paniflcans
Baer's vesicle
bioinformatic
birdbox
bottom center wheel jewel
bulldozer
canaliculata
Carresse
Cd-banding
Changbong
chicken-and-ham
commissioner of the treasury
commutative rejection
compass locator
critical shortage of
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de-excitation by gamma-emission
deflation gap
development system
DGPF
diathermocoagulation
diceros simuss
dies communes in banco
direct type recorder
faultline
financial projection
freight or carriage paid to
genus leucogeness
glyoxalate
high birefrigence optical fibre
homoisomerous lichen
hose-in-hose
humorously
insurance-backed
inter-connectedness
interchain disulfide bond
kaolinising
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koffigohs
laaser
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lupeol-3-hydroxyarachidate
makin' waves
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marine magnetic chart
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mush coil
my document
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One must drink as one brews.
optimum profitability
overlaping
P-tree
PACDIS
panel joint
Pasteurella boviseptica
plumbosolvent
practical interests
precision polymerization
pseudocelebrities
rail-mounted transtainer
refrigeration load
rhabdocoela
ribbon shape
robstown
Seger cone
select jumper
service braking system
shini-tai
sine oscillation
six sides forging
solid shaft rotor
Sorraia, R.
speak-box
St-Lon-les-Mains
starting damper
stratum cinereum
superfetating
synbranchids
Tacna
taeniura meyeni
telephone office
Tirpate
tpt (transmission path termination)
traytice
triservice
vibration ratio
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well-expressed
WinPhone
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Xylorrhiza