Looking at a memorable picture slows our sense of time， according to a newstudy. And the longer people think they have looked at an picture， the more likely3they are to remember it.

The new study is the result of a group of experiments4 by researchers atGeorge Mason University in the US. In the first two experiments， two groups ofaround 50 people each were shown pictures of scenes5. They have different sizes andnumbers of clutter6. For example， a small scene with a lot of clutter might be a fullcupboard， and a large scene without much clutter might be an empty warehouse7.

People were shown each picture for under a second and asked to press a buttonto show whether it was shown for a“l(fā)ong”or“short”time.

The results of both experiments showed that when people saw large scenes withlittle clutter， they were likely to think they had been looking at them for longer thanthey really had. And the opposite8 effect9 was true when seeing small scenes withlots of clutter.

In next experiments， the researchers showed 69 people some pictures that hadalready been rated10 for memorability11. They were more likely to think they hadbeen looking at more memorable pictures for longer than they really had. And thelonger they thought they had been looking at a picture， the more likely they were toremember it the next day.

When our sense of time slows down， it might help us get more information ifwe’re looking at something important. If we want to make time go more slowly， weshould do things that are new and interesting.

根據(jù)一項(xiàng)新的研究，看一張容易記憶的圖片會(huì)減緩我們對(duì)時(shí)間的感知。人們認(rèn)知中自己曾觀看一張圖片的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，他們就越有可能會(huì)記住它。

這項(xiàng)新研究是美國(guó)喬治梅森大學(xué)研究人員一組實(shí)驗(yàn)的結(jié)果。在最初的兩個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)中，研究者向兩組大約50 名參與者每人都展示了有場(chǎng)景的圖片，這些場(chǎng)景里有不同大小和數(shù)量的雜物。例如，有很多雜物的小場(chǎng)景可能是一個(gè)滿滿的櫥柜，而沒有太多雜物的大場(chǎng)景可能是一個(gè)空倉庫。

參與者看每張圖片的時(shí)間不到一秒鐘，還要按下一個(gè)按鈕來表示這張照片的播放時(shí)間是“長(zhǎng)”還是“短”。

兩個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)的結(jié)果都表明，當(dāng)參與者看到?jīng)]有雜物的大場(chǎng)景時(shí)，他們可能會(huì)認(rèn)為自己已經(jīng)看了比實(shí)際更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間。當(dāng)看到雜亂的小場(chǎng)景時(shí)，則正好相反。

在接下來的實(shí)驗(yàn)中，研究人員向69 名參與者展示了一些已經(jīng)被評(píng)定為好記的圖片。參與者更有可能認(rèn)為他們看容易記住的圖片花的時(shí)間比實(shí)際要長(zhǎng)。他們認(rèn)為自己看一張圖片的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，第二天就越有可能記住它。

當(dāng)我們的時(shí)間知覺變慢時(shí)，如果我們?cè)诳粗匾臇|西，它可能會(huì)幫助我們獲得更多信息。如果我們想讓時(shí)間過得慢一些，應(yīng)該去做一些新奇又有趣的事情。

▏Notes

1. memorable 難忘的；值得紀(jì)念的

2. sense 感覺官能

3. likely 可能發(fā)生的

4. experiment 實(shí)驗(yàn)；試驗(yàn)

5. scene 事發(fā)地；現(xiàn)場(chǎng)；事件；場(chǎng)面

6. clutter 雜亂的東西；雜亂

7. warehouse 倉庫；貨棧；貨倉

8. opposite 完全相反的；截然不同的

9. effect 作用；影響

10. rate 評(píng)價(jià)；評(píng)定；被認(rèn)為；被列為

11. memorability 值得記憶；難忘的人