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 Ever wonder why overhearing a cellphone conversation is so annoying? American researchers think they have found the answer. |
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Ever wonder why overhearing a cellphone conversation is so annoying? American researchers think they have found the answer. Whether it is the office, on a train or in a car, only half of the conversation is overheard which draws more attention and concentration than when overhearing two people talking, according to scientists at Cornell University. "We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue," said Lauren Emberson, a co-author of the study that will be published in the journal Psychological Science. "Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can't tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated," she said in an interview. Last year Americans spent 2.3 trillion minutes chatting on cellphones, according to the US wireless trade association CTIA -- a ninefold increase since 2000. Worldwide, there are about 4.6 billion cellphone subscribers, according to the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency. The number is equal to about two-thirds of the world's population, leaving few corners of the globe where public spaces are free of mobile-tethered babblers. China has the most cellphone users with 634 million, followed by India with 545 million and the United States with 270 million, figures from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) show. Emberson said people try to make sense of snippets of conversation and predict what speakers will say next. "When you hear half of a conversation, you get less information and you can't predict as well," she said. "It requires more attention." The findings by Emberson and her co-author Michael Goldstein are based on research involving 41 college students who did concentration exercises, like tracking moving dots, while hearing one or both parties during a cellphone conversation. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
知道為什么聽別人打手機(jī)如此心煩嗎？美國研究人員稱他們找到了答案。 康奈爾大學(xué)的科研人員稱，無論在辦公室、火車還是汽車上，只聽到一半的手機(jī)談話比聽兩個人的完整對話更耗費注意力和精力。 將在《心理科學(xué)》雜志上發(fā)表的研究報告的撰寫者之一勞倫?艾伯森說：“相對于傾聽一段完整的談話，只聽到一半的談話讓我們更難以轉(zhuǎn)移注意力?！?/p> 她在采訪中說：“‘一半的談話’的確更易讓人分神，而你又不能不聽，這可以解釋為什么聽別人打手機(jī)會心煩。” 據(jù)美國無線貿(mào)易組織電信工業(yè)協(xié)會的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，去年美國人打手機(jī)聊天的時間達(dá)2.3萬億分鐘，比2000年增加了九倍。 據(jù)聯(lián)合國國際電信同盟的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，目前全世界約有46億手機(jī)用戶，占全球總?cè)丝诘娜种?，手機(jī)用戶幾乎遍布世界的每個角落。 美國中央情報局的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，中國的手機(jī)用戶最多，達(dá)6.34億，其次是印度，為5.45億，美國位居第三，為2.7億。 艾伯森說，在聽別人打手機(jī)時，人們總想弄清說話人所說的只言片語的意思，并預(yù)測說話人接下來會說什么。 她說：“當(dāng)你只聽到一半的談話時，你得到的信息較少，也不好去預(yù)測，所以需要更多的注意力?！?/p> 艾伯森和研究報告的共同撰寫人邁克爾?戈德斯坦讓41名大學(xué)生做了一項注意力練習(xí)，比如讓他們在聽一個人或兩人在進(jìn)行手機(jī)談話時追蹤移動的小圓點。他們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)基于這項測試。 相關(guān)閱讀 （中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍） |
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Vocabulary: overhear: to hear, especially by accident, a conversation in which you are not involved 偶然聽到；無意中聽到 tune out: to stop listening to something 不理睬；不去聽 babbler: 嘮叨的人 snippet: a short piece of a conversation, piece of music, etc. 一小段（談話、音樂等） |
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