来源：《科学美国人》2022年5月号
Children often learn new languages more easily than adults do, but it’s unclear why. Some hypothesize that grasping a language requires absorbing subtle patterns unconsciously and that adults’ superior conscious reasoning interferes. New research suggests that, indeed, grown-ups might just be too smart for their own good.
儿童通常比成年人更容易学习新语言，但原因尚不清楚。一些人假设，掌握一种语言需要无意识地吸收微妙的模式，而成年人的高级有意识推理会起到干扰作用。确实如此，新的研究表明，成年人可能聪明反被聪明误了。
For a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, a group of Belgian adults simultaneously read and heard strings of four made-up words. Specific consonants always appeared at the beginning or end of a word if the word contained a certain vowel. Participants next read the sequences aloud quickly. Their ability to avoid mistakes doing so indicated how well they absorbed the consonant-vowel patterns.
《实验心理学杂志：总论》最近发表了一项研究：一群比利时成年人同时读和听由四个人造单词组成的字符串。如果单词包含某个元音，那么特定的辅音总是出现在单词的开头或结尾。接下来，参与者快速大声朗读这些字串。他们避免错误的能力表明他们吸收辅音元音模式的程度。
But before exposure to the new words, the participants had carried out a separate test: pressing keys to react to letters and numbers. Some got a much faster, more mentally draining version of this test. Those who tackled the difficult version claimed greater cognitive fatigue afterward—but performed better on the subsequent language task. The researchers hypothesize that tired learners used less conscious analysis on the word rules: they were free to learn like a child.
但在接触新单词之前，参与者已经进行了另一项测验：以按键的形式对字母和数字做出反应。其中一些人接受的测验更快、更耗脑力。完成了这些难度较大测验的人称，他们的认知疲劳程度更高，但在随后的语言任务中表现得更好。研究人员假设，疲劳的学习者对单词规则的有意识分析较少：他们可以像孩子一样自由地学习。
For a related paper, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, the team had English-speaking adults listen to streams of syllables secretly clustered into three-syllable “words.” Later, they played pairs of three-syllable clusters; one word in the pair came from the stream, and one was a new combination. The participants guessed which word was familiar, then rated their confidence.
发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上的令一篇相关论文中，该研究小组让讲英语的成年人听一连串音节，这些音节秘密地聚集成三个音节的“单词”。之后，他们播放了成对的三音节组；两个单词里有一个来自音节串，另一个是新的组合。参与者猜测哪个词比较熟悉，然后对他们的信心进行评分。
In one participant group, some had first done the original mentally draining test. In another, some had received magnetic pulses to disrupt activity in a brain area that previous research has linked to executive control. In both groups, these interventions improved participants’ performance on the syllable task when they were unsure about their answers, indicating unconscious parsing of speech.
在一组参与者中，一些人先做了之前的脑力消耗测试。在另一组中，一些人接受了磁脉冲来扰乱大脑中与执行控制有关的区域的活动。在两组中，当参与者对自己的答案不确定时，这些干预都提高了他们在音节任务中的表现，这表明他们对语音进行了无意识的解析。
Ghent University psychologist Eleonore Smalle, who spearheaded both papers, offers advice based on her team’s findings. When beginning to learn a language, she says, immerse yourself in its sounds, even—or especially—while distracted. “Have a good glass of wine while listening to a podcast in Italian,” she suggests with a laugh. “Why not? It could help.”
这两篇论文的领头人，根特大学的心理学家埃莉诺·斯莫尔，根据她团队的发现提供了建议。她说，当开始学习一门语言时，要沉浸在它的声音中，甚至——或者特地——在分心的时候。“一边听意大利语播客，一边喝杯好酒，”她笑着建议道。“为什么不呢？这可能会有帮助。”