Does learning the Qur'an improve memory capacity? Practical and theoretical implications
Does learning the Qur'an improve memory capacity? Practical and theoretical implications
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DOI：
10.1080/09658211.2020.1811347
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发表时间：
2020-08-28
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Kapur, Narinder
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Black, Rashaun;Mushtaq, Faisal;Kapur, Narinder
我们对人类记忆的理解，从对记忆受损个体的研究中得到了很大的帮助，但从高水平的记忆表现中得到的帮助却很少。其中包括伦敦出租车司机的案例，他们广泛的路线学习导致海马体的改变。我们的研究涉及一组广泛的语言学习可能提供了一个类似的自然实验。穆斯林信仰鼓励信徒背诵整部古兰经，约77，449个经典阿拉伯语单词。成功的记忆者被称为“哈菲兹”。我们测试了10名哈菲兹，12名背景匹配的穆斯林对照和10名非穆斯林参与者，对他们的古兰经的详细知识和他们的口头和视觉空间学习的标准措施的表现。我们发现，这三组之间没有差异，他们的能力，以记忆口头或视觉空间材料，因此没有证据表明，在哈菲兹组的学习能力的泛化。然而，更令人惊讶的是，哈菲兹小组中有一半人不懂阿拉伯语，但在古兰经记忆中与那些懂阿拉伯语的人相当。考虑到意义在长期记忆中的重要性，这是出乎意料的。我们将讨论这些结果对非文字记忆和长期学习的实际和理论意义。
Our understanding of human memory has gained greatly from the study of individuals with impaired memory but rather less from outstandingly high levels of memory performance. Exceptions include the case of London taxi drivers whose extensive route learning results in modification of their hippocampus. Our study involves a group whose extensive verbal learning potentially provides a similar natural experiment. The Muslim faith encourages followers to memorise the whole of the Qur'an, some 77,449 words in its classic Arabic form. Successful memorisers are known as "Hafiz". We tested 10 Hafiz, 12 background-matched Muslim controls and 10 non-Muslim participants, on their detailed knowledge of the Qur'an and on their performance on standard measures of verbal and visuospatial learning. We found no differences between the three groups in their capacity to memorise verbal or visuospatial material and hence no evidence of generalisation of learning capacity in the Hafiz group. More surprisingly, however, half of the Hafiz group did not understand Arabic but were equivalent in Qur'anic memory to those who did. Given the importance that meaning is typically assumed to play in long-term memory, this was unexpected. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these results for verbal memory and long-term learning.