你是否在與人交談時(shí)，很難看著對方的眼睛把話說下去？人們通常認(rèn)為，講話時(shí)避免眼神接觸是怕尷尬或不自信的表現(xiàn)。然而，日本京都大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們給出了另一種科學(xué)解釋。

It turns out we're not just awkward, our brains actually can't handle the tasks of thinking of the right words and focusing on a face at the same time.

事實(shí)上，我們并不只是尷尬，而是大腦無法同時(shí)兼顧“思考恰當(dāng)詞匯”和“眼神接觸”的任務(wù)。

The effect becomes more noticeable when someone is trying to come up with less familiar words, which is thought to use the same mental resources as sustaining eye contact.

當(dāng)人們努力搜索不太熟悉的詞匯時(shí)，這個(gè)效應(yīng)會更加明顯。科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，這兩項(xiàng)任務(wù)占用同樣的心理資源。

Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan put this to the test in 2016 by having 26 volunteers play word association games while staring at computer-generated faces.

2016年，日本京都大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們?yōu)榇诉M(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)。他們讓26名志愿者在玩詞匯聯(lián)想游戲的同時(shí)，盯著由計(jì)算機(jī)生成的臉龐。

When making eye contact, the participants found it harder to come up with links between words.

在進(jìn)行眼神接觸時(shí)，受試者更難想出詞匯之間的關(guān)聯(lián)。

"Although eye contact and verbal processing appear independent, people frequently avert their eyes from interlocutors during conversation," wrote the researchers.

研究人員寫道：“盡管眼神交流和語言處理似乎是獨(dú)立的，但人們經(jīng)常在談話中避開對話者的眼睛?！?/p>

"This suggests that there is interference between these processes."

“這表明，這兩個(gè)過程之間存在干擾。”

The volunteers were tested while looking at both animations of faces making eye contact and animations of faces looking away. They were also asked to think of links between easily associated words and words where there are a lot of competing associations.

志愿者在測試中盯著的圖畫臉龐既有直視鏡頭的，也有看向其他方向的。他們進(jìn)行聯(lián)想的詞匯也有容易聯(lián)想的詞，和存在大量競爭聯(lián)想詞。

For example, thinking of a verb for 'knife' is relatively easy, because you can't do much more than cut or stab with one. Coming up with an associated verb for 'folder' is harder, considering you could open, close, or fill them.

舉例而言：聯(lián)想和“刀（knife）”有關(guān)的動(dòng)詞比較簡單，我們通常只能用刀來“切（cut）”或者“刺（stab）”。聯(lián)想和“文件夾（folder）”有關(guān)的動(dòng)詞更加困難，因?yàn)槟憧梢源蜷_（open）”、“合上（close）”或者“填充（fill）”文件夾。

The volunteers took longer to think of words when they were making eye contact, but only when difficult word associations were involved. The researchers suspect the hesitation indicates the brain is handling too much information at once.

志愿者在進(jìn)行眼神接觸時(shí)，需要花更長時(shí)間才能想出答案——但這種效應(yīng)只發(fā)生在困難任務(wù)中。研究人員推測：這種遲疑意味著，大腦同時(shí)處理太多信息了。

So while making eye contact and holding a conversation is certainly possible, this is evidence that they can both draw on the same pool of cognitive resources, and sometimes that pool starts to run a little dry.

雖然人們的確能在交流時(shí)保持眼神接觸，但這個(gè)證據(jù)表明，這兩個(gè)過程能從相同的認(rèn)知資源池中提取信息，以至于有時(shí)候這個(gè)池子開始有些見底了。

The sample size used was pretty small, but it's an interesting hypothesis.

實(shí)驗(yàn)采用的樣本非常少，但這是一個(gè)很有意思的假設(shè)。

In 2015, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo demonstrated that staring into someone else's eyes for just 10 minutes induced an altered state of consciousness. Participants saw hallucinations of monsters, their relatives, and even their own faces.

2015年，意大利心理學(xué)家喬瓦尼?卡普托證明，只要盯著某人眼睛10分鐘，就會誘發(fā)意識改變狀態(tài)。受試者會看到各種幻想，如怪物、親人、甚至自己的臉龐。

It seems that a process called neural adaptation is the cause, where our brains gradually alter their response to a stimulus that doesn't change – so when you put your hand on a table, you immediately feel it, but that feeling lessens as you keep your hand there.

這似乎與一個(gè)被稱為“神經(jīng)適應(yīng)”的過程有關(guān)，即如果刺激保持不變，大腦會逐漸改變對它的反應(yīng)——因此，當(dāng)你把手放在桌上時(shí)，會立刻有所感覺；但如果手一直放在桌上，感覺就會逐漸減弱。

The volunteers making eye contact and associating words may also be experiencing some kind of neural adaptation, but for now the Kyoto University researchers are calling for further study into the links between verbal and non-verbal communication.

在京都大學(xué)的實(shí)驗(yàn)中，志愿者同時(shí)進(jìn)行眼神接觸和聯(lián)想詞匯時(shí)，可能也經(jīng)歷了某種神經(jīng)適應(yīng)。京都大學(xué)的研究人員目前正在呼吁進(jìn)一步研究語言交流和非語言交流之間的聯(lián)系。

And in the meantime, if someone looks away while they're talking to you, they might not be being rude – they could just have an overloaded cognitive system.

同時(shí)，如果有人在談話過程中看向別處，他們可能不是不禮貌，只是認(rèn)知系統(tǒng)超載了。

英文來源：sciencealert.com

編譯：董靜

審校：yaning