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Psychologists have often described attention as a spotlight you can shine on things to bring them into focus.
心理学家经常把注意力描述成聚光灯，你可以把它投射到事物上，使其聚焦。
And while you're focused on something, your brain processes it preferentially, and everything else falls into the background a little.
当你专注于某件事的时候，你的大脑会给予优先处理，其他事情就会稍稍排后。
But a 2018 paper suggests that attention is more of a strobe light — it 'pulses' by briefly switching focus to the background four times a second.
2018年的一篇论文认为，注意力更像是闪光灯——一秒钟四次将焦点短暂地转移到背景上来进行“脉冲”。
Put simply, humans are wired to be distractible— and although you might lament that fact when you're trying to buckle down and study for an exam,
简而言之，人类天生就容易分心——尽管当你努力学习准备考试的时候你可能会哀叹这一事实，
it's actually a good thing you're not always great at staying focused.
实际上，不擅长集中注意力是件好事。
People tend to view distractibility as a bad thing, and that makes sense.
人们往往认为分心是件坏事，这可以理解。
In modern society, we place a lot of value on productivity, and being distracted can lower your performance on specific tasks.
现代社会的我们非常重视效率，分心会降低你在特定任务上的表现。
I mean, just think of all the work you'd get done if you didn't keep getting lost in daydreams, feel the urge to check your Twitter feed, or…
我的意思是，想想看，如果你没有在白日梦中迷失，没有冲动去查看你的推特，或者……
Hey!
嘿！
What's that shiny thing over there…
那边那个闪闪发光的东西是什么？
Your brain does have ways of keeping you on task.
大脑确实有办法让你继续工作。
Most of the time, when you get distracted by the outside world or your own thoughts, several areas in your frontal lobe will guide you back to what you should be doing, re-orienting your attention from whatever intruded.
大多数时候，当你的注意力被外部世界或自己的想法分散时，大脑额叶的几个区域会引导你回到你应该做的事情上，重新调整你的注意力，使其不受干扰。
But there's a lot of built-in distractibility, too, and that's because, from an evolutionary perspective, it has its perks.
但也有很多非人为因素的分心，这是因为，从进化的角度来看，分心有它的好处。
Being able to focus intently to pump out a million expense reports in a row wasn't really something that benefited our ancestors.
能够集中精力连续提交一百万份费用报表，我们的祖先并没有从中受益。
Instead, checking out the surroundings all of the time without realising it probably made them less likely to get caught off guard by something dangerous, like a predator, or Jack from the next tribe over, Jack.
而一直观察周围环境却没有意识到，这可能会使他们不太可能被一些危险的事物，比如掠食者或者另一个部落，打个措手不及。
And being easily distracted by even tiny threats could have meant the difference between safety and becoming a snack.
很容易被微小的威胁分心可能意味着安全与成为猎物之间的差别。
That's something scientists say can been seen today by looking at how people with different levels of anxiety react to distractions.
科学家们说，我们今天通过观察不同焦虑程度的人对分心的反应可以看到这一点。
Anxious people are naturally predisposed to assume a threat is near, so they're even more easily distracted by potential dangers.
焦虑的人往往认为威胁近在眼前，所以他们更容易被潜在的危险分散注意力。
For example, a 2007 study asked 44 participants to push a particular computer key as quickly and accurately as they could after being prompted by a screen.
例如，2007年的一项研究要求44名参与者在屏幕提示后尽快准确地按下特定的电脑键。
Once they'd gotten the hang of it, they were told that some extra words would appear during each trial, which they were to ignore.
一旦掌握了窍门，就告诉他们在每次试验中出现的一些忽略的单词。
And everyone was pretty good at ignoring neutral words, like 'shower', or positive ones, like 'delight'.
每个人都很擅长忽略中性词汇，比如“淋浴”，或者积极词汇，比如“喜悦”。
I mean "shower" is a positive word in my book.
我的意思是“淋浴”在我的词典里是一个积极词汇。
But the participants with higher levels of anxiety were more slowed down by negative words that could be perceived as physical threats, like 'murder'.
但那些焦虑程度较高的参与者则更容易因为那些有着威胁身体含义的消极词汇，比如“谋杀”，而放慢速度。
It was as if their attention was yanked from the task in order to assess whether or not they needed to protect themselves.
就好像他们的注意力从任务中抽离以评估是否需要自我保护。
These days, that kind of strong reaction to perceived threats can be draining.
如今，这种对察觉到的威胁的强烈反应可能会让人精疲力尽。
But in the past, a little anxiety might have been a good thing, since the odds were a lot higher that there really was a significant potential threat.
但过去，一点焦虑可能是件好事，因为真正存在重大潜在威胁的可能性要高得多。
And even when you're not in literal danger, a bit of distraction can be super useful.
即使你没有真正的危险，分散一点注意力是非常有用的。
If you're trying to be creative, for example, there's evidence to suggest that instead of focusing hard on the task at hand, you should let yourself be distracted.
例如，如果你想要变得有创造力，有证据表明你应该让自己分心，而不是专注于手头的工作。
Several studies have suggested that distractibility and creativity are two sides of the same coin…or neuron.
几项研究表明，注意力分散和创造力是相对的。
That's because the structural differences in the brain that make a person more distractible also seem to free up their imagination.
这是因为大脑中使人更容易分心的结构差异似乎也解放了他们的想象力。
But a 2012 study went even further to show that a bout of daydreaming can get the creative juices flowing no matter how distractible you are innately.
但2012年的一项研究更进一步表明，无论你天生多么容易分心，短暂的白日梦都能激发创造力。
The researchers tested the creativity of 145 participants using a measure known as the Unusual Uses Test.
研究人员使用一种被称为“非常规使用测试”的方法测试了145名参与者的创造力。
In it, you're asked to write down as many uses for an object as you can within a set time frame, and are assigned points for each use you come up with.
在这篇文章中，受试者被要求在规定时间内尽可能多地写下物体的用途，并且根据想出的用途，给受试者打分。
Participants did a baseline Unusual Uses Test, then either completed a mentally-demanding task, an easy task that let their minds wander, or simply rested.
参与者做了一个非常用途测验，然后要么要求他们完成一项脑力任务——让他们走神的简单任务，要么让他们休息。
Then, they tried the Unusual Uses Test again.
然后，他们又进行了一次非常用途测验。
Resting by itself didn't have much of an effect on their scores, nor did challenging their brains with a demanding task.
休息对分数没有太大的影响，要求高的任务对大脑也没有太大的挑战。
But the group that was given the easy task crushed it.
但是分配简单任务小组的测验结果要好。
Their scores improved by an average of about 42%.
他们的分数平均提高了42%。
And surveys revealed that distractions were really what gave them the edge — they were the only group whose mind wandered significantly in between the two tests.
调查显示，分心确实是他们处于优势地位的原因——他们是唯一一组在两项测试之间明显走神的人。
Other studies have suggested distractibility can help you prepare for the future.
其他研究表明，分心可以帮助你为未来做好准备。
In any given moment, things happening outside your focus might seem irrelevant.
在任何一个特定的时刻，关注之外发生的事情似乎都无关紧要。
Like, if you're trying to finish that report you're writing, a distant beeping sound is just an annoying distraction.
比如，如果你正在写报告，远处的蜂鸣声使你无法集中注意力。
But, the information you gather while distracted could become incredibly important later on.
但是，你在分心时收集的信息可能会在以后变得非常重要。
Like, when you realize that beep was your phone alerting you to that super important email containing all the information you need to finish your report... or a smoke alarm going off nearby.
比如，当你意识到蜂鸣声是你的手机在提醒你收到一封超级重要的电子邮件，里面包含了你完成报告所需的所有信息……或者附近的烟雾报警器响了。
Look, I'm not trying to giving you an excuse to goof off every five minutes here.
听着，我不是想给你一个每五分钟就偷懒的借口。
Sometimes you've just got to focus. But being distractible isn't always a bad thing.
有时候你必须集中精力。但是分心并不总是一件坏事。
So next time you find yourself daydreaming at work or distracted by something totally random you see or hear, maybe don't get so mad at your brain for getting off task.
所以，下次当你发现自己在工作时做白日梦，或者被一些你看到或听到的完全随机的事情分心时，不要因为没有完成任务而对你的大脑怒气盎然。
It's just trying to help you come up with an innovative way to solve whatever problem you're stuck on, or, you know, making sure you don't ignore that incoming tiger.
它只是试图帮助你想出一个创新的方法来解决你遇到的任何问题，或者，确保你没有忽视即将到来的危险。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期心理科学秀！
And thank you especially to our patrons on Patreon.
特别感谢Patreon对本节目的支持。
It simply cannot be overstated: without our patrons, we wouldn't be able to do what we do, including making educational psychology content like this video.
没有我们的赞助者，我们就无法制作像本视频这样的教育心理学内容，这绝非夸大其词。
So if you want to help us keep doing what we do best, or if you're curious what being a member of our community of patrons feels like, you can go on over to Patreon.Com/SciShow
所以，如果你想帮助我们继续做出最棒的节目，或者如果您好奇成为我们用户社区一员会是什么感觉，可以访问Patreon.Com/SciShow。
