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
学英语单词
adjustment curve
airborne artillery
ball head
bar up
beam-accessible memory
benzo fast red 8BL
boundary layer buildup
break something in pieces
cam lobe material
canaliculi of bone
channel sampling
cinquillo
clockwork (clock mechanism)
closed throttle
congresses
core rope
cystocele
deposit weld
dhuodas
dichotomy of variable
Douarnenez
Downstream enterprise
drop shots
dust coats
EBCT
electron attachment coefficient
evolutionary zoomorphology
false papers
fancy edge scissors
Fieux's tests
forced-draft control
gamini
gave forth
growth and decline
hatch survey
HNoMS
Hut'iba
hyperpolarisation
ice caloing
inclined trajectory
infinitivally
input output section
isidiose
joint hinges
key-scheme
Krasang
Liu Shaoqi
lotteries
machinery repairman
mains frequency coreless induction melting furnace
marcles
mechanical cutting method
Meidelstetten
metrothosis
Morrua
mouthier
Nageotte cell
neofabraea populi thompson
Nesterovskiy Rayon
non intersecting
nonabsorbent
Penzoldt's tests
poley-mountain
prepps
preradical
pretilt
propeimine
prosy
representative sampling horizon
retractest
ringeth
Riverina
sale by tender
scenery plot
season of rice transplanting
secondary hypothyroidism
secondary spine
semi-dwarf varieties
Sibirskiy
simmondsia california
six feet under
soil shear strength
spacing for insulation
sphenomorphus taiwanensis
split range positioner
spondylodesis
standard cover paper
Stanton Banks
stress effects
stress strain relation
supercompiler
supersynchronous speed
tanacetifolia
technical commission
telescopic jack
the short end
thermocouple element
Triakis
under-voltage open phase relay
units of variance
unsurety
zinkists