With life getting more demanding and hectic all the time, it seems there's only one way to cope—multitasking. Gurus and life hackers make a living telling us how to get better at it. But can we actually multitask?
隨著生活持續變得更加苛刻艱困，似乎只有一種方式能應對了－－多工處理（一心多用）。權威大師或生活專家都靠教授一心多用的秘訣來賺錢。但是我們真的能一心多用嗎？
The term was first used in the '60s to describe computer performance. The human brain, though, is not a computer. And human attention is a very limited resource. Some psychologists model visual attention as being like a spotlight. It can only be shone in one direction at any one time. Our primary focus—what we're paying most attention to—is like the brightly-lit area in the center of the beam. It can also be understood as being like a zoom lens—we can choose to narrow our focus to concentrate in detail or widen it to be aware of more things simultaneously. But we can't be zoomed in and out at the same time.
這個詞第一次出現是在 1960 年代，用來描述電腦的性能。但人類的腦袋和電腦不一樣。人類的專注力是非常有限的資源。有些心理學家模擬出視覺注意力的樣子，就像聚光燈一樣。一次只能照亮一個方向。我們主要的專注力－－我們最專心注意的地方－－就像光束中心最亮的那個區域。也可以將視覺注意力理解成變焦鏡頭－－我們可以選擇縮小焦距，專心在細節上，或擴大焦距，同時留意多項事物。但我們沒辦法將焦距同時拉近又拉遠。
Even though we're constantly receiving a huge amount of information from our senses, it's only possible for a small amount to make it through to conscious awareness. Watch the next section very carefully, and pay particular attention to how many balls bounce in the circle.
即使我們不斷從五官接收大量訊息，只有一點點訊息能成功轉變成自覺意識。仔細看下一個片段，特別注意有多少顆球彈進圈圈裡。
How many can you count? Seven, right? But did you also notice that little dinosaur? What about the changing shape of the circle? Or the smiley face on one of the balls? This shows just how powerful focused attention is. Being able to filter out irrelevant detail is an amazingly useful tool. But it means we can miss things that are right under our noses—an effect known as inattention blindness.
你數出來有幾個呢？七個，對吧？但你也有注意到那隻小恐龍嗎？那圓圈形狀的改變呢？或是其中一顆球上有一個笑臉呢？這就顯示了集中注意力的力量有多麼強大。能夠過濾掉不相關的細節是非常有用的工具。但這也代表著我們會直接忽略發生在我們眼皮底下的事情－－這種作用稱作「不注意視盲」。
You can see this very clearly in the famous invisible gorilla experiment. When asked to concentrate exclusively on how often basketball players in white pass the ball, most people completely miss the gorilla walking across the screen and beating his chest.
你也能在這個有名的隱形大猩猩實驗中非常清楚地看到這個現象。被要求只專注看白衣籃球員傳幾次球時，大部分的人都沒注意到有一隻大猩猩從畫面中間走過，還捶自己的胸口。
We just don't have the capacity to process everything at once. This is a particular problem when we try to multitask. We can switch attention from one task to another and back again. But when attention is overloaded, we miss things. And the result is nearly always that we perform tasks less well than we would doing them one at a time.
我們就是沒有能力同時處理所有事情。這就是我們想要一心多用時會遇到的特定問題。我們可以將注意力從一件任務上轉移到另一件，再轉回來。但當注意力超載的時候，我們就會漏掉事情。結果通常都會比一次做一件事情的效果差。
It's only truly possible to do two things at once if they require different sets of cognitive resources. For example, it's totally possible to read a book and listen to music at the same time, which would suggest that driving while talking on the phone is not a problem as long as it's a hands-free phone.
只有在用到兩種不同認知資源時才有可能同時做兩件事。例如，一邊看書、一邊聽音樂是完全可行的，這也暗示了一邊開車一邊講電話其實不是問題，只要電話是免持聽筒。
It's not that simple, though. Research has shown that, while talking on the phone, we have a tendency to create mental images. And this uses the same visual resources needed for driving. And if visual resources become too stretched, it's perfectly possible for a driver to look directly at a hazard—but, just like with that little dinosaur, fail to see it. Not everything will make it through to conscious awareness. So multitasking makes us at best, inefficient, and at worst, downright dangerous. If you're feeling like you should be doing 17 things at once, remember, that's just not the way your brain is wired.
但其實沒這麼容易。研究顯示，我們在講電話時容易在腦海中產生畫面。而這運用到跟開車一樣的視覺資源。如果視覺資源被拉到極限，駕駛者就很容易直接碰到危險－－但就像那隻小恐龍一樣，我們會沒看到危險。並不是所有事情都會成功變成自覺意識。所以一心多用最好的狀況是讓我們做事沒效率，最差的狀況是直接遇到極端的危險。所以如果你覺得你必須同時處理 17 件事情，要記得，我們的腦袋並不是這樣運作的。
Thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and click the bell to receive notifications for new videos. See you again soon.
謝謝收看。別忘了訂閱並開啟小鈴鐺，才能收到新影片的通知喔。下次見囉。
