No one knows for certain why people dream, but some dreams misht be connected to the mental processes that help us learn. In a recent study, scientists found a connection between nap-time (午睡时间) dreams and better memory in people who were learning a new skill.
“I was astonished by this finding,” Robert Stickgold told Science News. He is a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School who worked on the study of-how the brain and nervous system work, and cognitive studies look at how people learn and reason. So a cognitive neuroscientist may study the brain processes that help people learn.
In the study, 99 college students between the ages of 18 and 30 each spent an hour on a computer, trying to get through a virtual maze (虚拟迷宫). The maze was difficult, and the study participants had to start in a different place each time they tried - making it even more difficult. They were also told to find a particular picture of a tree and remember where it was.
For the first 90 minutes of a five-hour break, half of the particularity stayed awake and half were told to take a short nap. Participants who stayed awake were asked to describe their thoughts. Participants who took a nap were asked about their dreams before sleep and after steep - and they were awakened within a minute of sleep to describe their dreams.
About a dozen of the 50 people who slept said their dreams were connected to the maze. Some dreamed about the music that had been playing when they were working; others said they dreamed about seeing people in the maze. When these people tried the computer maze again, they were generally able to find the tree faster than before their naps. However, people who had other dreams, or people who didn’t take a nap, didn’t show the same improvement.
Stickgold suggests the dream itself doesn’t help a person learn - it’s the other way around.
小题1:It is a cognitive scientists job to study__ .
A．how people dream and learn
B．the structure of the nervous system
C．whether someone is reasonable
D．the process of understanding小题2:The purpose of the study attended by 99 college students is to .
A．find the hidden tree in the maze
B．test the design of a difficult virtual maze
C．train people’s memory
D．see how dreams and learning are connected小题3:The better performance in working out the maze is connected with .
A．how people dream
B．what people dream
C．when people dream
D．where people dream小题4:The writer will probably continue to talk about in the 6th paragraph.
A．how learning process caused the dream
B．how a dream helps a person learn
C．how dreams and learning influence each other
D．how to improve people’s memory
