Abstract:

Research indicates that a prolonged period of time is needed for a new word to become integrated with the existing lexicon and generate stable and long-lasting memory representations, with sleep playing an important role in the offline consolidation of this process (known as sleep-associated memory consolidation). This study explored the effects of immediate and delayed sleep on the semantic learning of new Chinese words using rare, real ancient Chinese animal names. Forty-one university students were divided into two groups: a sleep-wake group that learned at night and a wake-sleep group that learned in the morning. Participants were tested immediately after learning, and again after 12 and 24 hours. Results showed that in the explicit word representation tasks, the sleep-wake group had greater performance improvement at the 12-hour mark (compared to immediately after learning) than the wake-sleep group, indicating that immediate sleep aids memory consolidation, with the advantage persisting for 24 hours in the definition task. However, the wake-sleep group showed greater improvement at 24 hours (compared to 12 hours), indicating that delayed sleep can also effectively consolidate memory, performing comparably to immediate sleep in the picture-naming task. In the implicit size judgment task, both immediate and delayed sleep promoted the semantic integration of new words, though in different ways. These findings support the dual role of sleep in both active consolidation and passive protection of memory.

Key words: sleep-associated memory consolidation, words learning, Chinese

摘要：

睡眠在离线记忆巩固中起重要作用。本研究以动物古代雅称的双字生僻真词为材料，探讨立即与延迟睡眠在汉语新词语义学习中的作用。41名大学生被分为夜晚学习的睡眠−清醒组和清晨学习的清醒−睡眠组，并在学习后进行立即、12h和24h的三次测试。结果显示，在外显测试任务中，睡眠−清醒组在12h后的成绩提升(vs.立即)大于清醒−睡眠组，即立即睡眠有助于巩固记忆，其优势在定义任务中保持至24h；而清醒−睡眠组在24h的提升(vs.12h)更大，即延迟睡眠也能有效巩固记忆，且在图片命名任务中与立即睡眠作用相当。在内隐大小判断任务中，立即和延迟睡眠均促进了新词的语义整合，但方式不同。结果支持睡眠在记忆巩固中的积极巩固和被动保护的双重作用。

关键词: 睡眠依赖性记忆巩固, 新词学习, 汉语