自言自语益处多多?

Most of us have ducked away from a 'madman' in the street, only to realise they are in fact using a Bluetooth headset. 大部分人在街上碰上自言自语的人，会觉得他们有问题，然后赶紧躲开，可是走近了才发现人家是用蓝牙耳机打电话。

Now a new University of Pennsylvania study shows that wandering along muttering, 'keys, keys, keys' can actually help (normal, sane) people find lost objects. 宾夕法尼亚大学的一项最新研究显示如果一个（正常，神智清醒）的人丢了钥匙，一边找一边念叨“钥匙，钥匙”可以帮助他快点把钥匙找出来。

Saying a word helps focus the mind on something people are looking for - and it works more effectively than seeing a written description. 说出你要找的东西可以帮你将注意力集中到这件物品上，这比见到书面描述要有效得多。

Repeating the word over and over again helps even more. 不断重复念要找的东西会更加管用。

Previous work has suggested children speaking to themselves while performing step-by-step tasks, like tying shoelaces, can help guide their behaviour and let them focus on the job in hand. 之前有研究发现儿童在一步步完成像系鞋带这样的任务时会不断跟自己说话，可以帮助孩子们指导自己的行为，让他们集中注意力干手头的事情。

However, scientists were not sure if speaking aloud when completing tasks could help adults in the same way, especially when looking for particular objects. 但是，科学家不能确定这样做对成年人是否有效，特别是找东西这种情况。

Prof Gary Lupan and Prof Daniel Swingley, writing for the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, believe the next time you lose your keys, muttering 'keys, keys, keys' while looking could in fact help people find them. 加里卢潘与丹尼尔斯文雷两位教授，在《实验心理学季刊》上发表了他们的见解：下一次你再找不到钥匙，边找边小声念“钥匙，钥匙”会帮到你。

Inspired by viewing people audibly muttering to themselves as they try to find things like peanut butter in a supermarket, researchers conducted two experiments to see if this actually worked. 研究人员看到人们在超市里一边找花生酱一边念叨，由此想到了这个办法，并做了两个实验来证明“念叨”是有效的。

In the first, participants were shown 20 pictures of various objects and were asked to find a certain one, with some seeing a text label telling them what they were looking for. 第一组实验中， 研究人员给被测者看20个物品的照片，要求他们找到其中一个指定的物品，其中一部分人看到的是丢失物体的文字标签。

These participants were then asked to search for the item again while saying the word to themselves, with results showing saying it aloud helped people find the object more quickly. 随后，研究人员要求被测者一边找去一边念叨要找的物品。结果发现自言自语的被测者能更快地找到东西。

The second experiment saw participants performing a virtual shopping task, where they were shown photographs of items commonly found on supermarket shelves. 第二组实验中，被测者要完成的是虚拟购物任务，他们看到的是超市里常见的商品照片。

They were asked to find all instances of a particular item, so if they were asked for apples they had to find all the bags of apples, as quickly as possible. 研究人员要求他们找出某件商品的所有货物，比如说苹果，他们就要尽快找出所有的苹果。

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Pennsylvania, both US, researchers found there was an advantage in saying the name of the product aloud when they were searching for something familiar. 威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校与宾夕法尼亚大学的研究人员都发现大声讲出要找的产品会事半功倍。