First, Gold and his team asked 30 people, who were either bilingual or monolingual, to look at a series of colored shapes and respond with the name of each shape by pushing a button. Then, they presented the participants with a similar series of colored shapes and asked them to respond with what colors the shapes were by pushing a button. Finally, researchers presented participants with a series of colored shapes, but they mixedprompts for either a shape or a color to test participants’ task-switching times. 首先，古尔德和他的团队让30个人看一系列有颜色的形状，然后按下按钮回答他们看到的是哪种形状，这30个人中既有说一种语言也有会说两种语言的人。然后，他们再给实验参与者看类似的上了色的形状，让他们按按钮回答他们看到形状的颜色是什么。最后，研究者们给参与者一系列有颜色的形状，不过问题中既有让参与者回答形状的，又有让他们回答颜色的，测试他们任务转换所花的时间。 The bilingual people were able to respond faster to the shifting prompts. 会说两种语言的人会对提示的变化反应更快。 Researchers then gathered 80 more people for a second experiment: 20 young bilinguals, 20 young monolinguals, 20 old bilinguals, and 20 old monolinguals. This time, researchers used fMRI scans to monitor brain activity during the same shape- and color-identifying tasks. Gold and his team found that bilingual people were not only able to switch tasks faster — they had different brain activity than their monolingual peers. 研究者接着召集了80个人参与第二项实验：20个说两种语言的年轻人，20个说一种语言的年轻人，20个说两种语言的老年人，以及20个说一种语言的老年人。这次，研究者用功能磁共振成像扫描法检测参与者们参加同样的实验时大脑活动的情况。古尔德和他的团队发现，说两种语言的人不仅转换任务的速度更快，而且他们大脑的活跃程度也同说一种语言的同龄人不同。小马过河 “It allows a sort of window into how the brains of people who have different cognitive processing abilities are processing the same stimuli in different ways,” said Kristina Visscher, a neurobiologist at the University of Alabama School of Medicine who did not work on the study. “这个研究让我们看到，拥有不同认知处理能力的人，大脑是如何用不同方式处理同一个刺激物的。”克里斯蒂娜·维斯切如是说，她是阿拉巴马大学医学院一位神经学家，并没有参与此次的研究。 Visscher called bilingualism a “beautiful natural experiment”, because people grow up speaking two languages, and studies have shown that they reap certain cognitive benefits from switching between languages and determining which to respond with based on what’s going on around them. The University of Kentucky researchers took it a step further by using brain imaging, which she said was “exciting.” 维斯切将双语称为是一个“美丽的自然的实验”。研究显示，通过语言转换、根据周围的环境判断应该如何回应，说着两种语言长大的人能够在认知方面得到某些特定的益处。肯塔基大学的研究者们又进了一步，用脑成像的方式进行实验，维斯切说这种尝试 “令人激动”。 |
