(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
Let's play a word game. What word can be put in front of the words "stick," "maker," and "point" to make three new compound words? Again...stick, maker, and point.
(five-second silence)
Ready for the answer? "Match. So that would then combine to make the words matchstick, matchmaker, and matchpoint." Emma Threadgold, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire in England. And the point of tasks like these, she says, is to measure creativity. (And if you didn't get it right away, don't worry, neither did I.)
Maybe you had music playing as you thought about the words. And, of course, many listen to music while they work. So Threadgold and her colleagues recently used such word puzzles to investigate whether listening to music affects creativity.
They asked volunteers to solve 19 puzzles, while listening to either a foreign-language tune (Spanish version of "King of Wishful Thinking," by Go West); an instrumental version of the same song (instrumental of "King of Wishful Thinking"); a familiar English-language tune (Pharrell's "Happy"); or silence.
The results? In every case, volunteers listening to music solved fewer puzzles than their counterparts in total quiet. Suggesting that background music does not really aid this kind of creative task. Maybe because these puzzles require some sort of mental speech rehearsal—trying out different word combos using your inner voice.
"And therefore they're more susceptible to changing state sounds such as music, in comparison to steady state sounds such as library noise."
And in fact, the researchers tested library noise too, (library noise) like the sounds of typing and rustling papers. And none of those noises impaired volunteers' performance at all, compared to the silent control group. The results are in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.
Still, if you do insist on listening to music while working, you might try something a little more low-key than Lady Gaga, says Threadgold's colleague John Marsh:
"So if you have a sound with a lot of changing state information in it, changes in pitch or in timbre, that's more disruptive than a sound with fewer of those changes. So if you compared a modern pop song with some classical music you'd expect less disruption from that classical music."
Even better, though, would be the sound of silence. (Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" clip briefly then stops) As in, actual silence.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
我们来玩一个文字游戏。什么词能放在"stick" 、"maker" 和 "point" 前面来组成三个新合成词？再重复一遍，是"stick" 、"maker" 和 "point" 。
（静待5秒）
准备好答案了吗？“正解是match。这样就可以组成单词matchstick（火柴棍）， matchmaker（媒人），和matchpoint（赛点）。”英国中央兰开夏大学的认知心理学家艾玛·斯莱德古德说到。她说，这类任务的目的是衡量创造力。（如果你刚才没立刻想出答案，别担心，我也没想出来。）
也许你在想单词的时候放了音乐。当然，许多人都边听音乐边工作。因此，斯莱德古德和同事最近用这种字谜游戏来调查听音乐是否会影响创造力。
他们让志愿者一边解开19个字谜一边听外国歌曲（Go West演唱的西班牙语版《一厢情愿之王》）、或同一首歌的器乐版（《一厢情愿之王》）、或是熟悉的英文歌（法瑞尔的《快乐》）、或者什么都不听。
结果呢？无论哪首歌曲，听音乐志愿者都比在完全安静环境中的志愿者解出的谜题要少。这表明背景音乐并不能真正帮助完成这种创造性任务。也许是因为这些谜题需要某种心理语言排练——即用内心的声音尝试不同的单词组合。
“因此，与图书馆噪音等稳态声音相比，他们更容易受到音乐等变化态声音的影响。”
事实上，研究人员还对图书馆噪音（图书馆噪音）、打字声以及纸张的沙沙声进行了测试。与安静环境的对照组相比，这些噪音丝毫没有损害志愿者的表现。研究结果发表在《应用认知心理学》期刊上。
不过，斯莱德古德的同事约翰·马什表示，如果你坚持边听音乐边工作，你可以尝试比Lady Gaga的歌曲更低调的音乐：
“如果你听的音乐中有很多高音或音色方面的变化态信息，那这种音乐比信息少的声音更具干扰性。如果你把现代流行歌曲与某些古典音乐进行比较，你会发现古典音乐的干扰较少。”
不过，更好的还是“寂静之声”。（西蒙和加芬克尔的《寂静之声》片段短暂播放后停止）就像真正置身于无声状态一样。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. try out 试验；测验；
I'm always pleased to try out a new variety.
我一直乐于尝试新产品。
2. be susceptible to 易受…影响的；易为…左右的；
Young people are the most susceptible to advertisements.
年轻人最容易受广告的影响。
3. in comparison to 与…相比；与…比较而言；
The heat content of the earth is very high in comparison to the heat loss of the earth.
与地球的热损耗相比，地球的热含量是很高的。
4. insist on 坚持；
She insisted on his/him wearing a suit.
她坚持要他穿西装。
