Some researchers contend that sleep plays no role in the consolidation of declarative memory(i.e., memory involving factual info

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问题 Some researchers contend that sleep plays no role in the consolidation of declarative memory(i.e., memory involving factual information). These researchers note that people with impairments in rapid eye movement(REM)sleep continue to lead normal
line lives, and they argue that if sleep were crucial for memory, then these individuals
5 would have apparent memory deficits. Yet the same researchers acknowledge that the cognitive capacities of these individuals have never been systematically examined, nor have they been the subject of studies of tasks on which performance reportedly depends on sleep. Even if such studies were done, they could only clarify our understanding of the role of REM sleep, not sleep in general.
10 These researchers also claim that improvements of memory overnight can be explained by the mere passage of time, rather than attributed to sleep. But recent studies of memory performance after sleep—including one demonstrating that sleep stabilizes declarative memories from future interference caused by mental activity during wakefulness—make this claim unsustainable. Certainly there are memory-
15 consolidation processes that occur across periods of wakefulness, some of which neither depend on nor are enhanced by sleep. But when sleep is compared with wakefulness, and performance is better after sleep, then some benefit of sleep for memory must be acknowledged.
Description
The passage presents and then rebuts two arguments made by researchers who question the contribution of sleep to the consolidation of declarative memory(memory involving factual information). The first argument is that people with impairments to REM sleep continue to lead normal lives. In response, the passage says that these researchers themselves acknowledge the absence of systematic study of such individuals’ cognitive abilities, study that would be necessary in order to fully support the researchers’ claim. The passage also points out that the researchers’ claim applies only to REM sleep rather than to sleep in general. The second claim is that improvements of memory that occur overnight might be explained merely by the passage of time. In response, the passage cites research findings that demonstrate the role of sleep in stabilizing declarative memory.
According to the author of the passage, which of the following generalizations about memory and sleep is true?

选项 A、There are some memory-consolidation processes that have nothing to do with sleep.
B、Sleep is more important to the consolidation of declarative memory than to the consolidation of other types of memory.
C、REM sleep is more important to memory consolidation than is non-REM sleep.
D、There are significant variations in the amount of sleep that people require for the successful consolidation of memory.
E、It is likely that memory is more thoroughly consolidated during wakefulness than during sleep.

答案A

解析 The passage states that "there are memory-consolidation processes that occur across periods of wakefulness." Accordingly, Choice A is correct. Choices B, C, and D are incorrect: the passage does not discuss types of memory other than consolidative memory, the relative importance to consolidative memory of REM and non-REM sleep, or differences among individuals in the amount of sleep they require. Choice E is also incorrect: the passage suggests that the truth is the opposite of what this answer choice states. The last sentence of the passage indicates that performance on memory tasks has been found to be better after sleep than after periods of wakefulness.
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本试题收录于: GRE VERBAL题库GRE分类
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