評論
打印
Psychologists have often described attention as a spotlight you can shine on things to bring them into focus.
心理學家經常把注意力描述成聚光燈，你可以把它投射到事物上，使其聚焦。
And while you're focused on something, your brain processes it preferentially, and everything else falls into the background a little.
當你專注于某件事的時候，你的大腦會給予優先處理，其他事情就會稍稍排后。
But a 2018 paper suggests that attention is more of a strobe light — it 'pulses' by briefly switching focus to the background four times a second.
2018年的一篇論文認為，注意力更像是閃光燈——一秒鐘四次將焦點短暫地轉移到背景上來進行“脈沖”。
Put simply, humans are wired to be distractible— and although you might lament that fact when you're trying to buckle down and study for an exam,
簡而言之，人類天生就容易分心——盡管當你努力學習準備考試的時候你可能會哀嘆這一事實，
it's actually a good thing you're not always great at staying focused.
實際上，不擅長集中注意力是件好事。
People tend to view distractibility as a bad thing, and that makes sense.
人們往往認為分心是件壞事，這可以理解。
In modern society, we place a lot of value on productivity, and being distracted can lower your performance on specific tasks.
現代社會的我們非常重視效率，分心會降低你在特定任務上的表現。
I mean, just think of all the work you'd get done if you didn't keep getting lost in daydreams, feel the urge to check your Twitter feed, or…
我的意思是，想想看，如果你沒有在白日夢中迷失，沒有沖動去查看你的推特，或者……
Hey!
嘿！
What's that shiny thing over there…
那邊那個閃閃發光的東西是什么？
Your brain does have ways of keeping you on task.
大腦確實有辦法讓你繼續工作。
Most of the time, when you get distracted by the outside world or your own thoughts, several areas in your frontal lobe will guide you back to what you should be doing, re-orienting your attention from whatever intruded.
大多數時候，當你的注意力被外部世界或自己的想法分散時，大腦額葉的幾個區域會引導你回到你應該做的事情上，重新調整你的注意力，使其不受干擾。
But there's a lot of built-in distractibility, too, and that's because, from an evolutionary perspective, it has its perks.
但也有很多非人為因素的分心，這是因為，從進化的角度來看，分心有它的好處。
Being able to focus intently to pump out a million expense reports in a row wasn't really something that benefited our ancestors.
能夠集中精力連續提交一百萬份費用報表，我們的祖先并沒有從中受益。
Instead, checking out the surroundings all of the time without realising it probably made them less likely to get caught off guard by something dangerous, like a predator, or Jack from the next tribe over, Jack.
而一直觀察周圍環境卻沒有意識到，這可能會使他們不太可能被一些危險的事物，比如掠食者或者另一個部落，打個措手不及。
And being easily distracted by even tiny threats could have meant the difference between safety and becoming a snack.
很容易被微小的威脅分心可能意味著安全與成為獵物之間的差別。
That's something scientists say can been seen today by looking at how people with different levels of anxiety react to distractions.
科學家們說，我們今天通過觀察不同焦慮程度的人對分心的反應可以看到這一點。
Anxious people are naturally predisposed to assume a threat is near, so they're even more easily distracted by potential dangers.
焦慮的人往往認為威脅近在眼前，所以他們更容易被潛在的危險分散注意力。
For example, a 2007 study asked 44 participants to push a particular computer key as quickly and accurately as they could after being prompted by a screen.
例如，2007年的一項研究要求44名參與者在屏幕提示后盡快準確地按下特定的電腦鍵。
Once they'd gotten the hang of it, they were told that some extra words would appear during each trial, which they were to ignore.
一旦掌握了竅門，就告訴他們在每次試驗中出現的一些忽略的單詞。
And everyone was pretty good at ignoring neutral words, like 'shower', or positive ones, like 'delight'.
每個人都很擅長忽略中性詞匯，比如“淋浴”，或者積極詞匯，比如“喜悅”。
I mean "shower" is a positive word in my book.
我的意思是“淋浴”在我的詞典里是一個積極詞匯。
But the participants with higher levels of anxiety were more slowed down by negative words that could be perceived as physical threats, like 'murder'.
但那些焦慮程度較高的參與者則更容易因為那些有著威脅身體含義的消極詞匯，比如“謀殺”，而放慢速度。
It was as if their attention was yanked from the task in order to assess whether or not they needed to protect themselves.
就好像他們的注意力從任務中抽離以評估是否需要自我保護。
These days, that kind of strong reaction to perceived threats can be draining.
如今，這種對察覺到的威脅的強烈反應可能會讓人精疲力盡。
But in the past, a little anxiety might have been a good thing, since the odds were a lot higher that there really was a significant potential threat.
但過去，一點焦慮可能是件好事，因為真正存在重大潛在威脅的可能性要高得多。
And even when you're not in literal danger, a bit of distraction can be super useful.
即使你沒有真正的危險，分散一點注意力是非常有用的。
If you're trying to be creative, for example, there's evidence to suggest that instead of focusing hard on the task at hand, you should let yourself be distracted.
例如，如果你想要變得有創造力，有證據表明你應該讓自己分心，而不是專注于手頭的工作。
Several studies have suggested that distractibility and creativity are two sides of the same coin…or neuron.
幾項研究表明，注意力分散和創造力是相對的。
That's because the structural differences in the brain that make a person more distractible also seem to free up their imagination.
這是因為大腦中使人更容易分心的結構差異似乎也解放了他們的想象力。
But a 2012 study went even further to show that a bout of daydreaming can get the creative juices flowing no matter how distractible you are innately.
但2012年的一項研究更進一步表明，無論你天生多么容易分心，短暫的白日夢都能激發創造力。
The researchers tested the creativity of 145 participants using a measure known as the Unusual Uses Test.
研究人員使用一種被稱為“非常規使用測試”的方法測試了145名參與者的創造力。
In it, you're asked to write down as many uses for an object as you can within a set time frame, and are assigned points for each use you come up with.
在這篇文章中，受試者被要求在規定時間內盡可能多地寫下物體的用途，并且根據想出的用途，給受試者打分。
Participants did a baseline Unusual Uses Test, then either completed a mentally-demanding task, an easy task that let their minds wander, or simply rested.
參與者做了一個非常用途測驗，然后要么要求他們完成一項腦力任務——讓他們走神的簡單任務，要么讓他們休息。
Then, they tried the Unusual Uses Test again.
然后，他們又進行了一次非常用途測驗。
Resting by itself didn't have much of an effect on their scores, nor did challenging their brains with a demanding task.
休息對分數沒有太大的影響，要求高的任務對大腦也沒有太大的挑戰。
But the group that was given the easy task crushed it.
但是分配簡單任務小組的測驗結果要好。
Their scores improved by an average of about 42%.
他們的分數平均提高了42%。
And surveys revealed that distractions were really what gave them the edge — they were the only group whose mind wandered significantly in between the two tests.
調查顯示，分心確實是他們處于優勢地位的原因——他們是唯一一組在兩項測試之間明顯走神的人。
Other studies have suggested distractibility can help you prepare for the future.
其他研究表明，分心可以幫助你為未來做好準備。
In any given moment, things happening outside your focus might seem irrelevant.
在任何一個特定的時刻，關注之外發生的事情似乎都無關緊要。
Like, if you're trying to finish that report you're writing, a distant beeping sound is just an annoying distraction.
比如，如果你正在寫報告，遠處的蜂鳴聲使你無法集中注意力。
But, the information you gather while distracted could become incredibly important later on.
但是，你在分心時收集的信息可能會在以后變得非常重要。
Like, when you realize that beep was your phone alerting you to that super important email containing all the information you need to finish your report... or a smoke alarm going off nearby.
比如，當你意識到蜂鳴聲是你的手機在提醒你收到一封超級重要的電子郵件，里面包含了你完成報告所需的所有信息……或者附近的煙霧報警器響了。
Look, I'm not trying to giving you an excuse to goof off every five minutes here.
聽著，我不是想給你一個每五分鐘就偷懶的借口。
Sometimes you've just got to focus. But being distractible isn't always a bad thing.
有時候你必須集中精力。但是分心并不總是一件壞事。
So next time you find yourself daydreaming at work or distracted by something totally random you see or hear, maybe don't get so mad at your brain for getting off task.
所以，下次當你發現自己在工作時做白日夢，或者被一些你看到或聽到的完全隨機的事情分心時，不要因為沒有完成任務而對你的大腦怒氣盎然。
It's just trying to help you come up with an innovative way to solve whatever problem you're stuck on, or, you know, making sure you don't ignore that incoming tiger.
它只是試圖幫助你想出一個創新的方法來解決你遇到的任何問題，或者，確保你沒有忽視即將到來的危險。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感謝收看本期心理科學秀！
And thank you especially to our patrons on Patreon.
特別感謝Patreon對本節目的支持。
It simply cannot be overstated: without our patrons, we wouldn't be able to do what we do, including making educational psychology content like this video.
沒有我們的贊助者，我們就無法制作像本視頻這樣的教育心理學內容，這絕非夸大其詞。
So if you want to help us keep doing what we do best, or if you're curious what being a member of our community of patrons feels like, you can go on over to Patreon.Com/SciShow
所以，如果你想幫助我們繼續做出最棒的節目，或者如果您好奇成為我們用戶社區一員會是什么感覺，可以訪問Patreon.Com/SciShow。
