VOA慢速英語(yǔ): 你怎么那么聰明？（雙語(yǔ)）

你怎么那么聰明?

You may have heard people say that hard work is more important than the intelligence you are born with. Recently, researchers noted changes in the brains of individuals immediately after they were told this.

你可能聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)人們常說(shuō)努力工作比天生聰明更為重要。最近，研究人員注意到當(dāng)人們聽(tīng)到這句話后，大腦里即刻的變化。

Hans Schroder led a study at Michigan State University. Mr. Schroder is a student at the university. As he noted, whether or not what people were told was true, “giving people messages that encourage learning and motivation may promote more efficient performance.”

漢斯·施羅德領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了密歇根州立大學(xué)的一項(xiàng)研究，施羅德先生是這所大學(xué)的一名學(xué)生。正如他所說(shuō)，無(wú)論人們所聽(tīng)到的是否是真的，只要是對(duì)人們的學(xué)習(xí)和動(dòng)機(jī)給予鼓勵(lì)的信息，就可能促進(jìn)人們更高效的表現(xiàn)。

In the study, two groups read different stories about intelligence. One story said intelligence levels are a product of our genetic material and cannot be changed. The researchers called this, the “fixed mindset.” The other story discussed how difficult living environments probably made individuals like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein highly intelligent. Researchers called this the “growth mindset.”

在這項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員讓兩組人閱讀了關(guān)于智力的不同故事。一個(gè)故事是說(shuō)，智力水平是遺傳基因的產(chǎn)物，是無(wú)法改變的。研究人員稱(chēng)其為“固定心態(tài)”另一個(gè)故事討論了是如何艱苦的生活環(huán)境成就了像列奧納多·達(dá)·芬奇和愛(ài)因斯坦這樣的高智商天才。研究人員將其稱(chēng)為“增長(zhǎng)心態(tài)”。

Later, the researchers tested the groups’ members on what they had just read. Mr. Schroeder and his team watched their brain activity as they answered questions about the main subjects in the story.

后來(lái)，研究人員對(duì)剛讀完故事的組成員進(jìn)行了測(cè)試，施德羅先生和他的研究團(tuán)隊(duì)在他們回答所讀故事的主題時(shí)，觀察了他們的大腦活動(dòng)。

The researchers say they found that small messages about our abilities can have a big effect on our beliefs about what we are able to do.

研究人員稱(chēng)，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)關(guān)于我們能力的小的信息，可以對(duì)我們能夠做什么的信仰產(chǎn)生很大的影響。

The people who read that intelligence comes from genes worked to answer the questions correctly. But their test results did not improve on later exams.

那些讀了智力是來(lái)源于基因故事的人們正確的回答了問(wèn)題。但是他們的測(cè)試結(jié)果在后續(xù)的測(cè)試中并沒(méi)有提高。

But the opposite was true among those who read that intelligence can come from hard work. They showed what the researchers called a more efficient brain response after they were told their answer was wrong. This suggests they thought they could give the correct answer on the next test. And the more these individuals thought about their mistakes, the faster they answered the questions on the next test.

相反那些讀了智力可以來(lái)自努力工作的人們，在被告知他們的回答是錯(cuò)誤的之后，卻顯示了研究人員所說(shuō)的那種更為有效地大腦反應(yīng)。這就表明，他們認(rèn)為在接下來(lái)的測(cè)試中，他們可以給出正確的答案。這些人對(duì)他們前面所犯的錯(cuò)誤想的越多，在接下來(lái)的測(cè)試中就回答的越快。

The researchers say the study showed that those who had a growth mindset made efforts to improve and adapt. They say even a small amount of time spent on changing the mindset, or beliefs, of individuals can affect how their brain operates. In their words, “messages about how much our abilities can change affect learning, achievement, and performance.”

研究人員稱(chēng)，該研究表明，那些有“增長(zhǎng)心態(tài)”的人們會(huì)去努力的改善提高和適應(yīng)。他們稱(chēng)即使是人們花費(fèi)少量的時(shí)間去改變心態(tài)和信念，也可以影響他們大腦的運(yùn)作。用他們的話說(shuō)就是“關(guān)于我們的多少能力可以改變的信息，可以影響我們的學(xué)習(xí)、成就和表現(xiàn)。”

The study was published in the journal Biological Psychology. I’m Christopher Cruise.

該研究被發(fā)表在《生物心理學(xué)》雜志上，我是克里斯多夫·克魯斯。