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You're taking a multiple choice test, and immediately you know --the answer is B! No, wait. D. It's totally D, right?
测试时你正在做选择题，立刻就知道答案选B！不，等等。绝对是D，没错吧？
Should you change your answer, or go with your first instinct? Even teachers and professors are likely to advise students to trust their gut and stick with their first answer.
你应该改变答案，还是遵从直觉？甚至老师和教授们也可能会建议学生相信自己的直觉，坚持最初的答案。
And though you probably shouldn't change every answer, data suggests most changes actually help us. We're not saying you should never go with your gut.
虽然你可能不应该每个答案都改，但有数据表明，大多数的改变实际上对我们有帮助。我们并不是说你永远都不应该凭直觉行事。
Our first instinct is definitely right sometimes. But our memory can trick us into putting a little too much stock in our first answer.
有时候，我们的第一直觉绝对是正确的。但记忆也会欺骗我们，让我们对第一个答案过于迷之自信。
Back in 2005, some researchers published a series of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology to test this idea.
早在2005年，一些研究人员就在《人格与社会心理学杂志》上发表了一系列研究，以测试这一想法。
They started by looking at multiple choice exams from intro psych classes.
他们从心理学导论课的多项选择题开始研究。
They had a team scour the exams for changed answers -- eraser marks and the like -- and they found over 3000 changes in more than 1500 tests.
他们的小组仔细检查考试的答案是否有变化——比如有橡皮擦标记之类的，他们在1500多份测试中发现了3000多次变更。
They noted which of these were a correction from wrong to right, from right to wrong, or from wrong to wrong.
他们注意到这些更正中哪些是由错改对，哪些是由对改错及哪些是由错改错。
What they found was that over half of changes were from wrong to right. Only 25% were changes to the wrong answer, and the rest were from wrong to wrong.
他们发现超过一半的改变是从错误改成了正确。只有25%的是正确改成了错误，其余的是从错误改成了错误。
They also gave a smaller group of about 50 students a survey asking them to predict how many wrong-to-right and right-to-wrong changes there would be.
他们还对50名学生进行了一项调查，让他们预测将会出现多少由错变对和由对变错的变化。
Students' predictions were about split. 42% thought there would be the most changes from right to wrong -- meaning, switching your answer is a bad idea.
学生们的预测存在分歧。42%的人认为由对变错的最大，也就是说，改变你的答案不是个好主意。
Another 33% thought it would help, with the rest on the fence. But the data suggested that switching did help more often than not.
另外33%的人认为会有所帮助，其余的人则持观望态度。但数据表明，改变确实帮助更大。
Psychologists call this the first instinct fallacy -- the belief that sticking to your first gut instinct will pay off. So why are our impressions so wrong?
心理学家称之为“第一直觉谬误”——相信坚持第一直觉会有回报。那么，为什么我们的印象会出错呢？
It has to do with how we react emotionally to mistakes, and how we remember them.
这与我们对错误的情绪反应，以及我们对错误的记忆有关。
Those same researchers asked a group of 27 students to report what their first instinct was on any question where they weren't sure of the answer.
同样的研究人员要求一组27名学生报告他们对任何不确定答案的问题的第一直觉是什么。
Then, the researchers gave them feedback on which answers were right and which were wrong.
然后，研究人员给他们反馈哪些答案是对的，哪些是错的。
And yes, when those students stuck with their first instinct, they were more likely to be wrong than when they switched.
是的，当这些学生坚持他们的第一直觉时，出错的可能性比他们更正时更大。
Then, a few weeks later, the students were invited back to test their memory.
几周后，学生们被邀请回来测试他们的记忆。
All of them remembered more switches to a wrong answer than they had actually made -- and fewer times that they stuck with the wrong answer.
所有人记住变更成错误答案的次数都比他们实际做过的次数多，而坚持错误答案的次数更少。
It feels worse to take an extra action, like changing your answer, and still get it wrong. That difference in our emotions seems to affect how we remember things.
如果你做了额外的举动，比如改了答案，但还是答错了，会感觉更糟。我们情绪上的差异似乎会影响我们记忆事物的方式。
When we actually wind up taking the test, we want to avoid that bad feeling again.
当我们真正结束考试的时候，我们想要再次避免那种糟糕的感觉。
This is an example of the availability heuristic, which is when you use whatever is easily available in your mind to guide your reasoning.
当你使用头脑中容易得到的东西来指导你的推理时，这是一个富于启发性的实用例子。
It's the same reason that people are often more worried about plane crashes than car accidents.
这也是人们更易担心飞机失事而非车祸的原因。
Plane crashes are usually scary events that get covered in the news. Car accidents are far more common, but rarely make headlines.
飞机失事通常是新闻报道中的可怕事件。车祸要常见得多，但很少成为头条新闻。
The right-to-wrong answers stick in our minds a bit like a plane crash does. We regret them more, but they're far less common.
“由对改错”的答案就像飞机失事一样，在我们的脑海中挥之不去。我们会更后悔，但这种事情并不常见。
Because they feel worse, they stick around in our minds more -- so we think they happen more than they really do.
因为它们感觉更糟，更多地停留在我们的脑海里——所以我们认为发生的次数比实际发生次数要多。
So if we know our memory is tricking us into thinking the more regrettable outcome is more likely, how can we adjust?
所以，如果知道记忆在欺骗我们，让我们认为越令人遗憾的结果越有可能出现，那我们该如何调整呢？
First, it's important to note that staying put isn't terrible -- it's just not as accurate as we think it will be.
首先，需要注意的是，原地不动并不可怕——它只是没有我们想象的那么准确。
In a smaller study, published in Metacognition and Learning in 2016, students kept track of when they considered switching answers but didn't.
在2016年发表在《元认知与学习》杂志上的一项规模较小的研究中，学生们记录了他们考虑更正答案但没有那样做的时刻。
It turned out they had the right answer 59% of the time. So going with their guts panned out just under two thirds of the time.
结果是59%的人都答对了。因此，他们的直觉在三分之二的情况下获得了成功。
Another thing to do is to pay attention to why you want to switch.
另一件要做的事情是注意你为什么想要改变。
If you find you want to change your answer because you misread a question or found a clue in a later question, that may well mean that switching will net you a correct answer.
如果你因为读错了一个问题或者在后面的问题中找到了线索而想要改变答案，这很可能意味着改变答案会让你得到正确答案。
But if your first answer was just a guess, and now you think you've got a better guess, that's less likely to be a reliable switch.
但如果你的第一个答案只是一个猜测，现在你认为你的猜测更合适，那这就不太可能是个可靠的改变。
Teachers can help out, too. For example, a pretest that gives you positive feedback when you switch your answer can help -- a little.
老师也可以帮忙。例如，当你要改变答案时，可以做一个给予你正面反馈的预测，这也有些帮助。
But mostly on easy questions that you might have rushed through. One study from 2003 designed a test that gave students a chance to go back and check for any errors.
但主要是对于简单的问题，你可能已经匆匆完成了。2003年的一项研究设计了一个测试，让学生有机会回头检查错误。
And having a brief chance to review helped students catch some mistakes and avoid that misleading gut instinct.
有了简短的复审机会可以帮助学生发现一些错误，以避免错误的直觉。
In the end, there's no one rule to follow if you're trying to figure out whether to go with your gut on a test.
最后，如果你想知道在考试中是否要听从直觉，那并没有一个可遵循的规则。
It depends on how well you know the material, which is the point of a test, after all.
这取决于你对材料的了解程度，毕竟这才是考试的重点。
And though maybe sometimes going with your gut can be good, it almost never hurts to think things through and double-check when you can -- on tests, and in life in general.
不管是在考试、日常生活中，虽然有时候跟着直觉走是件好事，但如果可以的话，还是想清楚并仔细检查一番也毫无坏处。
Hey, you know who's great at thinking things through? Our patrons.
你知道谁最擅长把事情想清楚吗？我们的赞助商。
At least when it comes to helping us make free videos about psychology -- and space and everything else -- for everyone to enjoy.
至少在帮助我们制作关于心理学、太空和其它大家喜欢的免费视频时是这样的。
You guys are awesome. Seriously. If you want to help out too, check out patreon.com/scishow.
你们太棒了。说实在的，如果你也想帮忙，请登录patreon.com/scishow。
