Oral Traditions as Memory Systems

这项研究通过研究记忆中没有扭曲或改变的材料来研究人类记忆；它问的是什么特性使这些刺激具有稳定性。这些知识不仅会推进理论，而且还会为如何更准确地准备记忆材料提供指导，特别是在无法使用书面记忆辅助工具的情况下。这项研究将集中在口述传统上，这些传统是在没有文字或其他外部记忆辅助的情况下代代相传的。例如，目前在北卡罗来纳海岸和山区演唱的民谣与民俗学家数百年前在不列颠群岛收集的民谣只有很小的不同。这项研究将测试那些没有保持传统稳定性的歌手，他们会把老歌谣写下来并参考它们；相反，这些歌手把歌谣记在记忆中，并通过口口相传来传播它们。歌手们不会死记硬背地学习民谣，而是利用一首好民谣的规则和限制来减轻他们的记忆负担。总而言之，这项研究将在自然环境下研究记忆，在这种环境下，记忆似乎以一种近乎最佳的方式工作。这项研究将采用几种方法。一种是从现存的北卡罗莱纳的歌谣和民间故事，以及之前的研究中收集的歌谣和民间故事，从歌曲的意义、诗歌和音乐限制方面进行分析。这些限制将被用来研究发生在历史时间的位置和类型的变化，以及在一个歌手或讲故事的人。这项研究将调查每一种约束对记忆总体稳定性的贡献，无论是单独的还是与其他约束相结合的。对传统知之甚少或一无所知的本科生将被要求学习几首民谣，看看他们的学习技能是如何随着经验而提高的。通过这种方式，将研究学习新的、高度结构化的材料的专业知识的发展。该研究将探讨由于口头材料而不是书面材料而产生的差异，因为它们的理论和实践重要性。本科生将被要求在不同的条件下解释一个复杂的口头或书面情况，研究将分析在这两种情况下句法、用词和整体组织的差异。生产方式造成的生产差异已被证明是巨大的。该研究项目将开始研究这些差异的机制。

This research approaches the study of human memory through the study of materials that are not distorted or changed in memory; it asks what properties afford these stimuli their stability. Such knowledge will not only advance theory, but will also provide guidance on how to prepare materials to be recalled more accurately, especially for use in situations where written memory aids cannot be used. The research will focus on oral traditions which have been handed down for generations without the aid of writing or other external memory aids. For instance, ballads currently sung on the coast and in the mountains of North Carolina differ only in minor ways from the ballads folklorists collected in the British Isles hundreds of years ago. This research will test singers who do not maintain the stability of their tradition by writing down the old ballads and referring to them; rather, these singers keep the ballads in memory and transmit them by word of mouth. The singers do not learn the ballads in a rote tedious fashion, but rather use the rules and limitations of a good ballad to ease their memory load. In sum, this research will study memory in a natural context where it appears to be working in a near-optimal fashion. The research will employ several methods. One is analysis of ballads and folktales from existing North Carolina collections and those collected in previous research in terms of the meaning, poetic, and musical constraints operating on the songs. These constraints will be used to study the location and kind of changes that occur over historical time as well as within a single singer or story teller. The research will investigate the contribution to the overall stability of memory of each constraint, taken individually or in combination with other constraints. Undergraduates who know little or nothing of the tradition will be asked to learn several ballads to see how their skills at learning imporve with experience. In this way, the development of expertise in learning new, highly structured material will be studied. The research will explore differences that are due to the material being produced orally as opposed to in writing, both for their theoretical and practical importance. Undergraduates will be asked to explain a complex situation either in speech or in writing under various conditions, and the research will analyze differences in the syntax, word choice, and overall organization in these two situations. Differences in production caused by the mode of production have been demonstrated to be substantial. The research project will begin to look at mechanisms for these differences.