People playing computer games to train their brains might as well be playing Super Mario, a new research suggests. In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive skills didn’t get any smarter.

　　一项新研究表明，想通过玩电脑游戏来锻炼大脑的人倒不如去玩“超级玛丽”（译者注：日本任天堂公司上世纪推出的一款红白机小游戏）。在一项为期六周的研究中，专家发现，以提高玩家认知能力为目的的网络游戏并没有使玩家变得更聪明。

Researchers recruited participants from viewers of the BBC’s science show “Bang Goes the Theory.” More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week.

　　研究人员从英国广播公司的科学节目“理论大爆炸”的观众中招募人员参与该项研究。8600 多名年龄介于18岁至60岁的参与者被要求玩一些由研究人员设计的网络益智游戏，每天至少玩十分钟，每周三次。这些网络游戏的设计目的是提高玩家的记忆力、推理能力和其他能力。

　　They were compared to more than 2,700 people who didn’t play any brain games, but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet and answering general knowledge questions. All participants were given IQ test before and after the experiment. Researchers said the people who did the brain training didn’t do any better on the test after six weeks than people who had simply been on the Internet. On some sections of the test, the people who surfed the Net scored higher than those playing the games.

　　研究人员将这些参与者与2700多名没有玩任何益智游戏，但用相同时间上网并参与普通知识问答的人作对比。在实验前后，所有参与者均接受了智商测试。研究人员说，在六个星期后的智商测试中，玩益智游戏的人并没有比那些单纯上网的人表现得更为出色。在测试的某些环节，单纯上网的人获得的分数比玩游戏的人还要高。

　　The study was published online by the journal Nature. “If you’re (playing these games) because they’re fun, that’s absolutely fine,” said Adrian Owen, the study’s lead author. “But if you’re expecting (these games) to improve your IQ, our data suggests this isn’t the case.”

　　这一研究结果发表在《自然》杂志的网站上。该研究报告的第一作者阿德里安·欧文说： “如果你玩（这些游戏）是因为它们使你开心，那当然非常好。但如果你期待（这些游戏）能提高你的智商，我们的数据显示，这不太可能。”