原文：
Sorting into pyramids

That the mind automatically imposes order on everything around it has long been recognized.

翻译：
分类成金字塔
人类的大脑会自动在周围的一切事物上强加秩序，这一现象早已被认可。

原文：

Essentially, it tends to see any sequence of things that occur together as belonging together, and therefore sets about imposing a logical pattern on them.

翻译：
本质上，大脑倾向于将一起出现的事物视为同一类，并因此在它们上面构建一个逻辑模式。

原文：

The Greeks, for example, demonstrated the tendency by looking up at the stars and seeing outlines of figures instead of pinpoints of light.

翻译：
例如，希腊人通过仰望星空，看到的是人物轮廓，而不是光点，这表明了这种倾向。

原文：

The mind will group together any series of items that it sees as having a ‘common fate’ — because they share similar characteristics or are near the same place.

翻译：
大脑会将任何被视为具有“共同命运”的一系列项目归为一组——因为它们有相似的特征或处于相近的位置。

原文：

Take these six dots for example:

翻译：
以这六个点为例：

原文：
When looking casually at them, everyone sees two groups of three dots each, primarily because some of the distances between the dots are smaller than others.

翻译：
当随意观察这些点时，大家会看到两个由三个点组成的组，主要是因为某些点之间的距离比其他点更近。

原文：
The value of seeing things in logical units is, of course, immense. To demonstrate, read the following pairs of nouns, which are normally not related to each other.

翻译：
以逻辑单元来看事物的价值当然是巨大的。为了说明这一点，请阅读以下一对对名词，它们通常彼此无关。

原文：

• LAKE • SUGAR

• BOOT • PLATE

• GIRL • KANGAROO

• PENCIL • GASOLINE

• PALACE • BICYCLE

• RAILROAD • ELEPHANT

• BOOK • TOOTHPASTE

翻译：

• 湖泊 • 糖

• 靴子 • 盘子

• 女孩 • 袋鼠

• 铅笔 • 汽油

• 宫殿 • 自行车

• 铁路 • 大象

• 书 • 牙膏

原文：
Now try to ‘organize’ them by picturing a situation in which each one might be associated – such as the sugar being dissolved in the lake or the boot sitting on the plate.

翻译：
现在试着“组织”这些名词，设想一个每对词可以关联的场景——例如糖溶解在湖中，或靴子放在盘子上。

原文：
Then cover up the list on the right-hand side and try to remember them through reading the list on the left-hand side. Most people find that they can recall them all without hesitation.

翻译：
然后将右边的列表盖住，通过左边的列表来记忆这些词。大多数人会发现他们可以毫不犹豫地全部回忆起来。

原文：
The same organizing phenomenon takes place when you are either listening to or reading ideas. You assume the ideas that appear together, one after the other, belong together, and attempt to impose a logical pattern on them.

翻译：
当你在听或读想法时，同样的组织现象也会发生。你会假定那些相继出现的想法属于同一组，并试图在它们之间构建一个逻辑模式。

原文：
The pattern will always be that of a pyramid because this is the only form that meets your mind’s need to

• Stop at the magical number seven.

• State the logic of the relationship.

翻译：
这种模式通常会是一个金字塔结构，因为这是唯一能够满足你的大脑需求的形式：

• 停留在神奇的数字七。

• 阐述关系的逻辑。

神奇的数字7

原文： There is a limit to the number of ideas you can comprehend at any one time. For example, think of deciding to leave your warm, comfortable living room to buy this week’s racing form. ‘I think I’ll go pick up a magazine,’ you say to your wife, ‘Is there anything you want while I’m out?’

翻译： 在任何时候，你能够理解的想法数量是有限的。例如，想象一下，你决定离开温暖舒适的客厅去买本本周的赛马表。你对你的妻子说：“我想去买本杂志，你有什么需要的吗？”

原文： ‘Gosh. I have such a taste for grapes after all those ads on television,’ she says as you walk toward the closet to get your coat, ‘and maybe you ought to get some more milk.’ You take your coat from the closet as she walks into the kitchen.

翻译： “天啊，看了电视上那些葡萄的广告，我真想吃点葡萄，”她说着，你正走向衣柜拿外套，“可能你还需要买些牛奶。”你从衣柜里拿出外套，她则走进厨房。

原文： ‘Let me look in the cupboard to see if we have enough potatoes and, oh yes, I know we’re out of eggs. Let me see, yes, we do need potatoes.’ You put on your coat and walk toward the door.

翻译： “让我看看橱柜里有没有足够的土豆，哦，对了，我知道鸡蛋用完了。让我看看，嗯，是的，我们需要土豆。”你穿上外套，走向门口。

原文： ‘Carrots,’ she calls out, ‘and maybe some oranges.’ You open the door. ‘Butter.’ You walk down the stairs. ‘Apples.’ You get into the car. ‘And sour cream.’ ‘Is that all?’ ‘Yes, dear, thank you.’

翻译： “胡萝卜，”她喊道，“还有一些橙子。”你打开门。“黄油。”你走下楼梯。“苹果。”你上了车。“还有酸奶油。”“就这些了吗？”“是的，亲爱的，谢谢你。”

原文： Now, without reading the passage over, can you remember any of the nine items your wife asked you to buy? Most men come back with the racing form and the grapes.

翻译： 现在，不重新阅读这个段落，你还能记得妻子让你买的九样东西吗？大多数男人只记得赛马表和葡萄。

原文： The major problem is that you’ve run into the magic number seven. This is a phrase coined by George A. Miller in his treatise, ‘The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.’ What he points out is that the mind cannot hold more than about seven items in its short-term memory at any one time.

翻译： 主要问题在于你遇到了神奇数字七的限制。这是乔治·A·米勒在他的论文《神奇数字七，加减二》中提出的术语。他指出，人类大脑在任何时候的短期记忆中最多只能容纳大约七个项目。

原文： Some minds can hold as many as nine items, while others can hold only five (I’m a five myself). A convenient number is three, but of course the easiest number is one.

翻译： 有些人可以记住多达九个项目，而有些人只能记住五个（我自己就是五个）。一个方便的数字是三，但最容易记住的当然是一个。

原文： What this means is that when the mind sees the number of items with which it is being presented begin to rise above four or five, it starts to group them into logical categories so that they can be retained.

翻译： 这意味着当大脑看到呈现的项目数量开始超过四或五时，就会开始将它们分组成逻辑类别，以便于记忆。

原文： In this case, it would probably put the items into categories that reflect the sections of the supermarket you would need to visit.

翻译： 在这种情况下，大脑可能会将这些项目分组到需要访问的超市分区中。

原文： To demonstrate how this helps, read the list below and categorize each idea in this way as you come to it. You will very likely find that it’s easier to remember.

翻译： 为了说明这种方法的帮助，阅读下面的列表并以这种方式对每个想法进行分类。你很可能会发现记忆起来更容易。

原文： GRAPES ORANGES

MILK BUTTER
POTATOES APPLES
EGGS SOUR CREAM
CARROTS

翻译： 葡萄 橙子
牛奶 黄油
土豆 苹果
鸡蛋 酸奶油
胡萝卜

原文： If you try to visualize this process, you will see that you have created a set of pyramids of logically related items.

翻译： 如果你试图将这个过程可视化，你会发现你创建了一组逻辑相关项目的金字塔。

原文： Dairy Products

• Milk

• Eggs

• Butter

• Sour Cream

翻译： 乳制品

• 牛奶

• 鸡蛋

• 黄油

• 酸奶油

原文： Fruit

• Grapes

• Oranges

• Apples

翻译： 水果

• 葡萄

• 橙子

• 苹果

原文： Vegetables

• Potatoes

• Carrots

翻译： 蔬菜

• 土豆

• 胡萝卜

原文： The need to state the logic

翻译： 阐明逻辑的必要性

原文： Now clearly, it is not enough simply to group the ideas in a logical way without also stating to yourself what the logic of the relationship is. The point in grouping was not just to move from a set of nine items to separate sets of four, two, and three items. That still comes to nine. What you want to do is move above the nine, to three.

翻译： 显然，简单地将想法进行逻辑分组还不够，你还需要向自己说明这种关系的逻辑性。分组的目的是不只是将九个项目划分为四、二和三个项目的子集，这样总数仍然是九个。你需要的是提升到比九更高的层次，达到三个类别。

原文： This means that instead of remembering each of the nine items, you remember only the three categories into which they fall. You are thinking one level of abstraction higher, but because the thought is at a higher level, it suggests the items below it. And, because the relationship is not a contrived one as was the case in the exercise about the lake and the sugar, it is much easier to keep in mind.

翻译： 这意味着你不再需要记住每一个具体的九个项目，而只需要记住它们所属的三个类别。你正在以一个更高层次的抽象思维方式进行思考，但因为这种思维处于更高的层次，它会暗示出它下面的具体项目。而且，由于这种关系并不是像湖泊和糖那样人为构建的，所以记住这些内容会更容易。

原文： All mental processes (e.g., thinking, remembering, problem solving) apparently utilize this grouping and summarizing process, so that the information in a person’s mind might be thought of as being organized into one giant conglomeration of related pyramids.

翻译： 所有的心理过程（例如思考、记忆、问题解决）显然都利用了这种分组和总结的过程，因此人们头脑中的信息可以被视为被组织成一个由多个相关金字塔构成的巨型组合体。

原文： If you think about communicating to that mind, you can see that the problem is one of ensuring that what you say will fit somewhere into the existing pyramids.

翻译： 如果你考虑向这种思维进行沟通，你会发现问题在于如何确保你所说的内容能够融入现有的金字塔结构中。

原文： Now we come to the real problem of communicating. You can ‘see’ these groupings of items quite clearly. To communicate them means to ensure that the other person ‘sees’ them in the same way. But, as was the case with your wife, you can only present them one by one.

翻译： 现在我们来到了沟通的真正问题。你可以很清晰地“看到”这些项目的分组。沟通它们意味着要确保对方也能以相同的方式“看到”它们。但就像你和妻子那样，你只能逐个呈现这些项目。

原文： Surely, the most efficient way to do this would be to present the category first and then the items. That is, to order the ideas from the top down.

翻译： 显然，最有效的方法是先展示类别，然后再展示具体的项目。也就是说，从上到下有层次地排列这些想法。