科学美国人60秒 文化上的蠢货会刺激灰质

Exposure to the unusual, the jarring, the culturally shocking may be beneficial for your cognitive¹ reasoning—and your waistline.

接触与众不同、不和谐文化方面的冲击可能会有益于认知推理——甚至你的腰围。

That’s according to a study in the journal Social Cognition.

该结论来自于杂志《社会认知》的一篇研究文章。

Using events we all have some understanding of—holidays, weddings and funerals — researchers ran eight experiments to see how people respond to normative cultural situations versus² culturally disfluent situations.

通过一些活动，我们都对——假期、婚礼、丧礼有了一些了解——研究者们进行了8次试验来研究人们对于标准的文化情境以及不熟悉的文化情境的反应。

A normative situation would be a bride wearing white on her wedding day. A disfluent one would be hanging Saint Patrick’s Day decorations on Christmas.

标准的情境应该是新娘在婚礼当天身穿白色的婚纱。而非标准的情境则是在圣诞节时挂上圣帕特里克节的装饰品。

The first two experiments took place during Fourth of July and Labor³ Day picnics. For the July Fourth party, white plates were randomly⁴ mixed into stacks of stars-and-stripes plates. On Labor Day, Halloween—adorned plates were mixed in with patriotic⁵ plates. Then guests selected food from a buffet⁶ line.

前两个试验的时间是美国独立纪念日以及劳动节。在独立纪念日聚会那天，白色的盘子随机混到成堆的星条旗盘子当中。而在劳动节那天，在爱国类的盘子则混杂着饰有万圣节花样的盘子。然后客人们从自助餐上挑选食物。

The result? On Labor Day, guests put less food on the Halloween-themed than on the patriotic plates. And on the Fourth of July, they put less food on plain white plates than on stars-and-stripes plates.

结果?在劳动节上，与爱国类的盘子相比，人们用万圣节主题类的盘子放的食物则比较少;而在美国独立纪念日上，人们用星条旗盘子盛放的食物则多于白色的盘子的食物。

In other parts of this study researchers found that people who have been exposed to culturally-disfluent situations performed better on cognitive reasoning tests and were less likely to succumb⁷ to impulse purchases and food consumption. That situation was compared to when events met their expectations—such as seeing hearts on Valentine’s Day.

在该项研究的其他几项实验中，研究者们发现，经历过非标准文化情境的人们在认知推理测试方面表现较好，不可能受到冲动购物以及食品消费的诱惑。研究者们将该种情境与事件满足人们期望的情境进行比较——例如，在情人节看到心。

Encountering the expected allowed subjects to behave more mindlessly. So, researchers reason that cultural fluency⁸ preserves associative reasoning while cultural disfluency shifts to systematic⁹ reasoning. These small tests reinforce the idea that routine makes the brain dull—while the unexpected keeps it fired up.

面对预期的情境会让受试者表现的更加盲目。所以，研究者们推理文化流畅性维持的是联动推理，而文化非流畅性则转向系统推理。这些小测试强化了该思想单调让大脑愚笨——而意外则会活跃大脑。

1 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

2 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

5 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

6 buffet   

n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台

参考例句：

• Are you having a sit-down meal or a buffet at the wedding?你想在婚礼中摆桌宴还是搞自助餐？
• Could you tell me what specialties you have for the buffet?你能告诉我你们的自助餐有什么特色菜吗？

7 succumb   

v.屈服，屈从；死

参考例句：

• They will never succumb to the enemies.他们决不向敌人屈服。
• Will business leaders succumb to these ideas?商业领袖们会被这些观点折服吗？

8 fluency   

n.流畅，雄辩，善辩

参考例句：

• More practice will make you speak with greater fluency.多练习就可以使你的口语更流利。
• Some young children achieve great fluency in their reading.一些孩子小小年纪阅读已经非常流畅。

9 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。