評論
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Maybe you're driving home from work and traffic's a little heavy,
也許你下班正開車回家，路上有點堵車，
so you decide to call your mom.
你決定給媽媽打個電話。
Or maybe you're watching SciShow while doing some calculus homework.
或者你在看科學秀的同時做微積分作業(yè)。
And it seems like both tasks are going well enough, since you might consider yourself good at multitasking.
這兩項任務似乎都進行得很順利，你可能認為自己擅長多任務處理。
Sound familiar?
有沒有很熟悉？
Sure, you might think you're doing well.
當然，也許你會認為你做得很好。
But as it turns out, you're just not noticing your mistakes.
但事實證明，你只是沒有注意到自己的錯誤。
According to lots of psychology studies – from researchers ranging from the University of Michigan to Stanford –
根據(jù)大量的心理學研究——從密歇根大學到斯坦福大學的研究人員——
when you think you're multitasking, you aren't actually doing two tasks at the same time.
你以為你在處理多項任務，實際上你并沒有同時做兩件事。
Instead, you're switching between them quickly so that you don't even notice.
快速地在兩件事之間來回切換讓你注意不到。
And, in the process of switching, you're taking longer and making more mistakes on both things than if you were doing one at a time.
而且，在切換的過程中，比起一次只做一件事，一次做兩件事花費的時間和犯的錯誤要更多。
So, why can't we multitask?
那么，為什么我們不能同時處理多項任務呢?
Your brain just isn't designed to do two things at once, and that has to do with your brain's executive control processes.
大腦并沒有同時做兩件事的設計，這與大腦的執(zhí)行控制過程有關。
These processes take place with help from your prefrontal cortex, the brain region you're using to concentrate right now.
執(zhí)行控制過程在前額皮質(zhì)的助力下進行，前額皮質(zhì)是用來集中注意力的大腦區(qū)域。
And they're responsible for most of your control and decision-making.
該區(qū)域負責人大部分的控制和決策。
And you might be thinking "Hank, how are you so sure I'm concentrating right now?"
你可能會想“漢克，你怎么能確定我現(xiàn)在很專注?"
It's because you are hearing what I'm saying!
那是因為你在聽我說話!
And if you are not, you are not concentrating. So I know!
如果你沒有聽到我說的話，說明你沒有集中注意力。所以我知道!
Psychologists think executive control processes have two distinct phases: goal shifting and rule activation.
心理學家認為，執(zhí)行控制過程有兩個不同的階段：目標轉移和規(guī)則激活。
In the goal shifting phase, your brain concentrates on doing Task A instead of Task B.
在目標轉移階段，大腦專注于做任務A而非任務B。
And in the rule activation phase, your brain focuses on turning off the rules it needs for the first task and turning on the rules for the next one.
在規(guī)則激活階段，大腦專注于關閉第一個任務需要的規(guī)則，并調(diào)取下一個任務的規(guī)則。
So, in the example, one study asked participants to multitask by solving simple math problems while also classifying different shapes.
因此，例如，一項研究要求參與者在解決簡單的數(shù)學問題的同時分類不同的形狀，進行多任務操作。
So first, your brain might work on the math problems instead of sorting shapes.
首先，大腦可能會處理數(shù)學問題而非分類形狀。
It would focus on the rules for how to do math – like order of operations or how to add numbers –
大腦將專注于數(shù)學題的規(guī)則——比如操作的順序或如何添加數(shù)字——
instead of the rules for choosing circles or squares.
而不是選擇圓或正方形的規(guī)則。
And when you switch tasks, first your brain would have to shift goals from math to shapes, then it would have to recall the rules to classify shapes.
當你切換任務時，首先大腦必須將目標從數(shù)學轉移到形狀，然后大腦必須回憶規(guī)則來對形狀進行分類。
Going through these stages helps your brain shift between tasks without you realizing it – but it also takes time, even if it's just a few tenths of a second.
這些過程可以幫助你的大腦在不同的任務之間轉換（你并沒有意識到）——但這也需要時間，即使只有零點幾秒。
Now, that doesn't seem like very long, but those delays will add up over time.
現(xiàn)在你會覺得時間不長，但是隨著時間的推移，停留時間會加長。
The same study also showed that multitasking with more complicated or unfamiliar tasks caused the delays to get longer with even more mistakes.
同樣的研究還表明，處理更復雜或不熟悉的任務會導致停留時間更長，錯誤更多。
Those short delays can have real-world implications–
這些短暫停留可能會對現(xiàn)實世界產(chǎn)生影響
like, a tenth-second delay while switching between answering your phone and paying attention while driving is about all it takes to cause an accident.
比如，在接聽電話和集中注意力開車之間切換停留的十秒鐘，就足以導致事故的發(fā)生。
Besides making you less productive, there's a chance that multitasking might affect, or be affected by, the structure of your brain.
除了降低工作效率，多任務處理也有可能影響大腦結構或被大腦結構所影響。
One 2014, peer-reviewed study from the Public Library of Science looked at the relationship between how often people multitasked and their brain structure.
2014年，美國公共科學圖書館進行了一項同行評議研究，研究了人們多任務處理的頻率與其大腦結構之間的關系。
The participants who multitasked the most had less gray matter, the brain tissue that's mostly neurons, in a region called the anterior cingulate cortex,
一次處理最多任務的參與者大腦灰質(zhì)較少，灰質(zhì)主要為前扣帶皮層的神經(jīng)元腦組織，
which is located near the prefrontal cortex and is involved in decision-making and impulse control.
它位于前額皮質(zhì)附近，負責決策和沖動控制。
But since it was a correlational study, the researchers were just observing people and weren't actually manipulating variables.
但由于這是一次相關性研究，研究人員只是觀察，并沒有真正操縱變量。
In other words, they couldn't determine if more multitasking causes the tissue loss or if less neurons in that region just happens to be related to the behavior,
換句話說，他們無法確定多任務處理是否會導致組織受損，或者該區(qū)域的神經(jīng)元數(shù)量減少是否恰好與行為有關，
so more research needs to be done before we can draw any conclusions.
所以在我們得出任何結論之前還需要進行更多的研究。
So, the research seems to suggest that we stop multitasking and focus on one thing at a time.
因此，研究似乎表明，我們需要停止一心多用，一次只專注于一件事。
But what if it isn't that easy?
但倘若不那么容易辦到呢?
Whenever you complete a small task – like sending out a funny tweet while working on a big project –
當你完成一個小任務——比如在處理一個大項目的時候發(fā)一條有趣的推特——
your brain releases the hormone dopamine, which makes you feel a small sense of reward and accomplishment.
大腦會釋放多巴胺，多巴胺會讓人感到小小的獎勵和成就感。
Since that's such a great feeling, it encourages you to keep multitasking.
這種感覺很棒，會鼓勵你繼續(xù)多任務處理。
Even though you might be doing each small task inefficiently or with more errors, your brain keeps releasing dopamine, so the multitasking continues.
即使你在做每一件小事的時候效率低下或者出錯更多，你的大腦還是會不斷釋放多巴胺，所以多任務處理還在繼續(xù)。
It's kind like a vicious cycle.
這有點像惡性循環(huán)。
On top of that, your prefrontal cortex is easily distracted and excited by new things, like kittens and memes, and whole internets worth of those things,
最重要的是，你的前額皮質(zhì)很容易受到干擾和對新事物，比如小貓和表情包以及整個互聯(lián)網(wǎng)吸引你的事物，產(chǎn)生興奮，
so it makes multitasking even more tempting.
因此，多任務處理更加吸引人。
But, for the sake of your job or your GPA, maybe finish that project you're working on,Then come catch up on SciShow!
但是，為了你的工作或者你的平均成績，任務完成之后再來看科學秀吧!
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感謝收看本期心理科學秀！
And special thanks to our patrons on Patreon for helping us get this channel off the ground!
特別感謝Patreon對本節(jié)目的支持！
If you'd like to help us make more episodes like this, check out patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想幫助我們制作更多這樣的劇集，請訪問patreon.com/scishow。
And if you wanna be the first to see new episodes here, you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe!
如果你想第一個看到新劇集，你可以登陸訂閱youtube.com/scishowpsych!
