評論
打印
Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class.
獨白:聽下面一段心理學課的演講
Professor:For decades, psychologists have been looking at our ability to perform tasks while other things are going on, how we are able to keep from being distracted and what the conditions for good concentration are.
教授:幾十年來，心理學家們一直在觀察我們在其他事情正在進行的時候，我們完成任務的能力，我們怎樣能不被分散精力，什么樣的環境有助于我們集中精神。
As long ago as 1982, researchers came up with something called the CFQ -the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire.
早在 1982 年，研究人員就想到了一個叫 CFO-認知失敗的問卷調查。
This questionnaire asks people to rate themselves according to how often they get distracted in different situations, like h um ….. Forgetting to save a computer file because they had something else on their mind or missing a speed limit sign on the road. John?
這個調查問卷讓人們在不同情形下受到不同程度的干擾來對自己進行評估，比如因為腦子中想別的事情就忘記了給電腦文件存檔或者在路上錯過了限速圖標。喬恩？
John:I've lost my share of computer files, but not because I'm easily distracted. I just forget to save them.
喬恩:我也忘記過給電腦存檔，但是不是因為我被分散精力了，而就是忘記存了。
Professor:And that's part of the problem with the CFQ.
教授:這也是 CFQ 的一部分問題所在。
It doesn't take other factors into account enough, like forgetfulness.
它沒有能將其它的因素足夠的考慮進來，如遺忘。
Plus you really can't say you are getting objective scientific results from a subjective questionnaire where people report on themselves.
另外你的確很難說能從人們對自己評估的主觀問卷中得出客觀的科學結論來。
So it's no surprise that someone attempted to design an objective way to measure distraction.
所以說有人試圖設計一種客觀的方法來測量注意力分散也是不足為奇的。
It's a simple computer game designed by a psychologist named, Nilli Lavie.
這是一個簡單的電腦游戲，由一位叫做尼里拉威的心理學家所設計。
In Lavie's game, people watch as the letters N and X appear and disappear in a certain area on the computer screen.
在她的游戲中，人們在電腦屏幕上特定的區域中觀看出現或者消失的字母 N 和 X。
Every time they see an N, they press one key, and every time they see an X they press another, except other letters also start appearing in the surrounding area of the screen with increasing frequency which creates a distraction and makes the task more difficult.
每次人們看見 N， 就按一個鍵，每次看見 X，就按另一個鍵，其它字母也一樣在屏幕上附近的區域出現，并以出現的頻率逐漸增長來使這項任務更加有難度。
Lavie observed that people's reaction time slowed as these distractions increased.
拉威觀察到人們在分散注意力度增加后反應速度減慢了。
Student:Well that's not too surprising, isn't it?
學生:這倒不足為奇，不是嗎？
Professor:No, it's not. It's the next part of the experiment that was surprising.
教授:是的。但是實驗的下一個步驟卻很讓人驚奇。
When the difficulty really increased, when the screen filled up with letters, people got better at spotting the Xs and Ns.
當難度真正在增加時，人們卻能看到 X和 N 了。
What do you think that happened?
你們覺得是怎么回事呢？
John:Well, maybe when we are really concentrating, we just don't perceive irrelevant information.
喬恩:嗯，可能是當我們精力集中特別的時候，我們就不去感知不相關的信息了。
Maybe we just don't take it in, you know?
可能是我們就沒有吸收這些信息，你知道吧？
Professor:Yes, and that's one of the hypotheses that was proposed, that the brain simply doesn't admit the unimportant information.
教授:是的，這是提出的第一種設想，就是說大腦僅僅就是不接收不重要的信息。
The second hypothesis is that, yes, we do perceive everything, but the brain categorizes the information, and whatever is not relevant to what we are concentrating on gets treated as low priority.
第二種設想是，對，我們認知一切，但是大腦將信息分類，然后一切與我們專注的不相關的信息就不被重視了。
So Lavie did another experiment, designed to look at the ability to concentrate better in the face of increased difficulty.
因此拉威進行了另一項實驗，就是為了看看在難度增加后，人們的專注能力。
This time she used brain scanning equipment to monitor activity in a certain part of the brain, the area called V5, which is part of the visual cortex, the part of our brains that processes visual stimuli.
這次她使用了大腦掃描一起來監控大腦某個特定區域的活動，這個區域叫做 V5，是視覺皮質的一部分，是人類大腦處理視覺刺激的部分。
V5 is the area of the visual cortex that's responsible for the sensation of movement.
V5 是視覺皮質用來感知運動的區域。
Once again, Lavie gave people a computer-based task to do.
拉威又一次進行了以電腦為基礎的工作。
They have to distinguish between words in upper and lower-case letters or even harder, they had to count the number of syllables in different words.
人們需要辨別大小寫字母，甚至更難，他們不得不數不同單詞有多少個音節。
This time the distraction was a moving star field in the background, you know, where it looks like you are moving through space, passing stars.
這次的注意力分散方法是在背景上添置了一個移動的星場。看上去就像你在穿越太空，穿梭于星際一般。
Normally area of V5 would be stimulated as those moving stars are perceived and sure enough, Lavie found that during the task area of V5 was active, so people were aware of the moving star field.
當移動的星星被大腦認知后，一般 V5 區域會被刺激到，果然，拉威發現在這個任務進行中，V5 區域是活躍的，因此人們是能感知到移動的星場的。
That means people were not blocking out the distraction.
這就意味意味著人們沒有把分散注意力的東西給屏蔽。
Student:So doesn't that mean that the first hypothesis you mentioned was wrong, the one that says we don't even perceive irrelevant information when we are concentrating?
學生:那這不就意味著剛才您提到的第一個設想是錯誤的嗎？就是說我們在專注的時候不去認知不相關的信息？
Professor:Yes that's right, up to a point, but t that's not all.
教授:是的，說到點子上的。但不完全是。
Lavie also discovered that as she made the task more difficult, V5 became less active, so that means that now people weren't really noticing the star field at all.
拉威同樣發現，在她將任務難度提高時，V5 變得不那么活躍了，也就是說人們其實并不注意星場了。
That was quite a surprise and it approved that the second hypothesis-that we do perceive everything all the time but the brain categorizes distractions differently, well, that wasn't true either.
這很出人意料，同時也證明了第二種設想，就是我們的確認知一切事物，但是大腦將分散注意力的東西進行不同的分類，呃，這種設想的不對。
Lavie thinks the solution lies in the brain's ability to accept or ignore visual information.
拉威認為解決方案在于大腦接受和忽略視覺信息的能力。
She thinks its capacity is limited.
她認為大腦的承載力有限。
It's like a highway.
就像高公路一樣。
When there are too many cars, traffic is stopped.
當車很多的時候，交通就堵塞了。
No one can get on. So when the brain is loaded to capacity, no new distractions can be perceived.
沒有人能在開到公路上來。那么當大腦的承載力已經滿時，就不能再感知新的分散注意力的事物了。
Now that maybe the correct conclusion for visual distractions, but more research is needed to tell us how the brain deals with, say, the distractions of solving a math problem when we are hungry or when someone is singing in the next room.
既然視覺注意力分散可能有了正確的結論，我們也還需要更多的研究來告訴我們大腦是如何處理一些問題的，比如說，當我們在解決數學題時感到饑餓或者聽到隔壁在唱歌。
