Some evidence that certain memory exercises make people smarter has stimulated the rise of online brain-training programs such as Lumosity. But at least one type of brain training may not work as advertised, a new study finds.
As expected, practicing improved volunteers’ performance on tests of memory and the ability to locate items quickly in busy scenes, say psychologist Thomas Redick of Indiana University Purdue University Columbus and his colleagues. That improvement did not, however, translate into higher scores on tests of intelligence and multitasking, the researchers report in the May Journal of Experimental Psychology General.
Redick’s investigation is part of a growing scientific debate about brain training, which is promoted by some companies as having a variety of mental benefits. Some researchers say that extensive instruction and training on memory tasks can indeed fortify reasoning and problem solving. Others are doubtful that active memory sessions may boost their working memory, the ability to keep in mind and compare several pieces of information.
Redick’s team studied 73 young adults, aged 18 to 30, divided into three groups. One group completed 20 training sessions over about six weeks on a task aimed at boosting working memory, the ability to keep in mind and compare several pieces of information.
A second group in the new study received 20 training sessions aimed at improving the ability to pick out novel shapes from large arrays (阵列) of similar-looking shapes. This group provided a comparison to see whether the effects of memory training differed from training on a different mental skill. A third group received no training.
In the two training groups, volunteers improved with practice on the task they were learning but showed no increases in tests of intelligence and of the total amount of information that could be held in mind.
Participants in the new study didn’t receive enough instruction and practice before memory sessions to benefit from the intervention (介入), Jaeggi says. Redick’s group also gave volunteers limited time to complete a series of shortened versions of standard intelligence tests, which probably limited any potential for scoring increases, she asserts.
But until larger studies with longer follow-ups are completed, Redick cautions against assuming that memory training smartens people up.
1. What can we learn about the study?| A．73 young adults received memory training. |
| B．The second group was aimed at testing memory skill. |
| C．Volunteers showed no improvements in tests of intelligence. |
| D．Further studies have been completed to support Redick’s findings. |
| A．increase. | B．dominate. | C．restore. | D．boost. |
| A．A personal diary. | B．A biology textbook. | C．A science magazine. | D．A finance report. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier, only about one in two hundred is affected in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman.
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shades of green. Sometimes a person can’t tell the differences between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man sees everything in shades of green—a strange world in deed.
Color blindness in human beings is strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions very small things called “cones”. These help us see in a bright day and tell the differences between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is nearly dark. They show us shapes but not color. Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes like blue but do not like yellow. A red light will not attract insects but a blue lamp will. In similar way human being also have favorite colors by day and with the aid of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the invisible colors around us.
1. The passage is mainly about ________.| A．color and its surprising effects on driver |
| B．women being luckier than man that fewer of them are color blind |
| C．danger caused by color blindness |
| D．color blindness and how our eyes tell different colors and shapes |
| A．tell different colors |
| B．see in weak light |
| C．tell different shapes |
| D．tell orange from yellow |
| A．Women are more careful. |
| B．There are fewer color blind women. |
| C．Women are fonder of driving than men. |
| D．Women are weaker but quicker in thinking. |
| A．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing colors. |
| B．None of them can sec deep red but all can tell blue from green. |
| C．None of them can tell blue from green but all can see deep red. |
| D．All of them are lucky enough to see everything in shades of green. |
【推荐2】Limiting kids’ recreational (消遣的) screen time to less than two hours a day, along with enough sleep and physical activity, is associated with improved cognition (认知) , according to a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
The study included about 4 ,500 US children aged 8 to11 and measured their habits against the Canadian 24 – Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. It found that 51% of the children got the recommended (建议的) 9 to 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night; 37% met the recreational screen time limit of two hours or less per day, while 18% met the physical activity recommendation of at least 60 minutes of accumulated physical activity a day. Only 5% of the children in the study met all three recommendations; 30% met none at all.
The researchers found that as each recommendation was met by a participant, there was a positive association with global cognition, which includes memory, attention, processing speed and language. Those who met all three had the most “superior” global cognition, followed by those meeting the sleep and screen time recommendation and finally the screen time recommendation alone, according to the study.
Other organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics – have guidelines in place to help with the management of children’s screen time. The organization suggests putting realistic rules or limits in place for how long your children are on their screens, knowing who they are talking to and what they are doing. The amount recommended screen time depends on the age of the child. Besides, parents should also make sure to encourage physical activity and have bedroom rules such as creating “ tech-free zones”.
1. Who are the target readers of this passage?| A．Researchers. | B．Teachers. | C．Parents. | D．Children. |
| A．A study on children's screen time is published. |
| B．US children fail to meet movement guidelines. |
| C．Organizations are concerned about children's cognition |
| D．Limitation on children's screen time is linked to better cognition. |
| A．Screen time limit. | B．Sleep hours. |
| C．Physical activity time. | D．Sleep hours and screen time limit. |
| A．To make sure children have enough physical playtime. |
| B．To make sure children have enough sleep time. |
| C．To make sure children have recreational time. |
| D．To protect children against radiation. |
【推荐3】In the 1950s, British historian Northeaster Parkinson came up with a concept which was later known as Parkinson’s Law of Triviality. It states that the amount of time spent discussing an issue in an organization is oppositely associated with its actual importance.
Parkinson’s Law of Triviality is also known as “bike-shedding (车棚)”, after the story Parkinson uses to illustrate it. He asks readers to imagine a financial committee meeting to discuss a three-point agenda. The points are as follows: A proposal for a￡10 million nuclear power plant; A proposal for a￡350 bike shed; A proposal for a￡21 annual coffee budget.
What happens? The committee ends up running through the nuclear power plant proposal in little time. It’s too advanced for anyone to really dig into the details. The discussion soon moves to the bike shed. Here, everyone’s an expert. In the end, the committee runs out of time and decides to meet again to complete their analysis.
Bike-shedding happens because the smaller a matter is, the more people will have an opinion on it, even when there is no genuine value to add. When something is outside of our circle of competence, like a nuclear power plant, we don’t even try to express an opinion. But when something is comprehensible, everyone wants to show that they know about the topic at hand.
How can we avoid bike-shedding? The main thing you can do is to have a clear purpose. Priya Parker, the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, says that any successful gathering needs to have a focused purpose. “Specificity,” she says, “is a crucial element.”
When it comes to choosing your list of invitees, Parker writes, “if the purpose of your meeting is to make a decision, you may want to consider having fewer cooks in the kitchen.” Getting the result you want - a thoughtful, educated discussion about that power plant - depends on having the right people in the room.
1. What is Parkinson’s purpose of presenting the imaginary meeting?| A．To state a fact. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To make a prediction. | D．To make a comparison. |
| A．The more you know, the less you speak. |
| B．What is simple for you may be tough for others. |
| C．What requires more work may get less attention. |
| D．The more you put in, the better your result will be. |
| A．Planning before the meeting. |
| B．Getting the right people to the table. |
| C．Spending less time on the minor issues. |
| D．Taking different opinions into account. |
| A．Purpose: The Key to an Effective Meeting |
| B．Talent: A Crucial Element in Organizations |
| C．The Bike Shed Effect: Avoiding Small Matters |
| D．Nuclear Power Plant: The Less-known Proposal |
【推荐1】Communities across the world are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. The efforts are well intentioned, but banning facial recognition is the wrong way to fight against modern surveillance （监 视）.Generally, modern mass surveillance has three broad components: identification, correlation and discrimination.
Facial recognition is a technology that can be used to identify people without their consent. Once we are identified, the data about who we are and what we are doing can be correlated with other data. This might be movement data, which can be used to "follow” us as we move throughout our day. It can be purchasing data, Internet browsing data, or data about who we talk to via email or text. It might be data about our income, ethnicity, lifestyle, profession and interests. There is an entire industry of data brokers who make a living by selling our data without our consent.
It's not just that they know who we are; it's that they correlate what they know about us to create profiles about who we are and what our interests are. The whole purpose of this process is for companies to treat individuals differently. We are shown different ads on the Internet and receive different offers for credit cards. In the future, we might be treated differently when we walk into a store, just as we currently are when we visit websites.
It doesn't matter which technology is used to identify people. What's important is that we can be consistently identified over time. We might be completely anonymous （匿名的）in a system that uses unique cookies to track us as we browse the Internet, but the same process of correlation and discrimination still occurs.
Regulating this system means addressing all three steps of the process. A ban on facial recognition won't make any difference. The problem is that we are being identified without our knowledge or consent, and society needs rules about when that is permissible.
Similarly, we need rules about how our data can be combined with other data, and then bought and sold without our knowledge or consent. The data broker industry is almost entirely unregulated now. Reasonable laws would prevent the worst of their abuses.
Finally, we need better rules about when and how it is permissible for companies to discriminate. Discrimination based on protected characteristics like race and gender is already illegal, but those rules are ineffectual against the current technologies of surveillance and control. When people can be identified and their data correlated at a speed and scale previously unseen, we need new rules.
Today, facial recognition technologies are receiving the force of the tech backlash （抵制），but focusing on them misses the point. We need to have a serious conversation about all the technologies of identification, correlation and discrimination, and decide how much we want to be spied on and what sorts of influence we want them to have over our lives.
1. According to Para. 2, with facial recognition _______.| A．one’s lifestyle changes greatly |
| B．one's email content is disclosed |
| C．one's profiles are updated in time |
| D．one's personal information is released |
| A．discrimination based on new tech surveillance is illegal |
| B．different browsing data bring in different advertisements |
| C．using mobiles anonymously keeps us from being correlated |
| D．data brokers control the current technologies of surveillance |
| A．people's concern over their safety |
| B．the nature of the surveillance society |
| C．proper regulation of mass surveillance |
| D．the importance of identification technology |
| A．call for banning facial recognition technologies |
| B．advocate the urgent need for changes in related laws |
| C．inform readers of the disadvantages of facial recognition |
| D．evaluate three broad components in modem mass surveillance |
【推荐2】Running is often tiring and a lot of hard work, but nothing beats the feeling you get after finishing a long workout around the track. But while it’s long been believed that endorphins (脑内啡), chemicals in the body that cause happiness, which are behind the so-called runner's high, a study suggested that there may be more to this phenomenon (现象) than we previously knew.
According to a recent study published by a group of scientists from several German universities, a group of chemicals called endocannabinoids (内源性大麻素) may actually be responsible for this familiar great feeling.
To test this theory, the scientists turned to mice. Both mice and humans release high levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids after exercise, along with many other chemicals. After exercising on running wheels, the mice seemed happy and relaxed and displayed no signs of anxiety. But after being given a drug to block their endorphins, the mice’s behavior didn't seem to change. However, when their endocannabinoids were blocked with a different drug, their runner's high symptoms (症状) seemed to fade.
“The long-held notion of endorphins being responsible for the runner’s high is false. Endorphins are effective pain relievers, but only when it comes to the pain in your body and muscles you feel after working out,” Patrick Lucas Austin wrote on science blog Lifehacker.
Similar studies are yet to be carried out on humans, but it’s already well known that exercise is a highly effective way to get rid of stress or anxiety. The UK's National Health Service even prescribe (开药方) exercise to patients who are suffering from depression. “Being depressed can leave you feeling low in energy, which might put you off being more active. Regular exercise can boost your mood if you have depression, and it’s especially useful for people with mild to moderate depression,” it wrote on its website.
It seems like nothing can beat that feeling we get after a good workout, even if we don’t fully understand where it comes from. At least if we're feeling down, we know that all we have to do is put on our running shoes.
1. What did scientists from Germany universities recently discover?| A．Endorphins may contribute to one’s high spirits after running. |
| B．The runners’ high could be caused by endocannabinoids. |
| C．The level of endorphins and endocannabinoids could affect one's mood. |
| D．Working out is a highly effective way to treat depression. |
| A．To test what influences the level of endocannabinoids released. |
| B．To see the specific symptoms of the runner's high. |
| C．To identify what is responsible for the runner’s high. |
| D．To find what reduces the runner's high symptoms. |
| A．belief. | B．activity. | C．effect. | D．question. |
| A．Workouts can help people completely recover from depression. |
| B．Workouts are the best way to treat depression. |
| C．Workouts only work for those with depression. |
| D．Workouts can help ease depression symptoms. |
【推荐3】Population and climate
The human population on Earth has grown to the point that it is having an effect on Earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems. Burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, urbanization, and cultivation of rice and cattle are increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust in the atmosphere. About 70 percent of the Sun’s energy passes through the atmosphere and strikes Earth’s surface. This radiation heats the surface of the land and ocean, and these surfaces then reradiate infrared radiation back into space. This allows Earth to avoid heating up too much. However, not all of the infrared radiation makes it into space; some is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and is reradiated back to Earth’s surface. A greenhouse gas is one that absorbs infrared radiation and then reradiates some of this radiation back to Earth. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are greenhouse gases. In fact, without greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists calculate that Earth would be about 33℃ cooler than it currently is.
The current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 360 parts per million. Human activities are having a major influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which are rising so fast that current predictions made by scientists are that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide will double in the next 50 to 100 years.
Some scientists predict that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration will raise global temperatures anywhere between 1.4℃ and 4.5℃. The increase in temperature will not be uniform, with the smallest changes at the equator and changes two or three times as great at the poles. The local effects of these global changes are difficult to predict, but it is generally agreed that they may include alterations in ocean currents, increased winter flooding in some areas of the Northern Hemisphere, a higher incidence of summer drought in some areas, and rising sea levels, which may flood low-lying countries.
1. It can be inferred from the passage that one positive aspect of greenhouse gases is that they _______.| A．remove pollutants from Earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems |
| B．absorb 70 percent of the Sun’s energy |
| C．help keep Earth warm |
| D．double atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide |
| A．The rapid rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is mostly caused by human activities. |
| B．Human activities will no longer have an influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the next 50 to 100 years. |
| C．Some scientists predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will not increase in the next 50 to 100 years. |
| D．Some scientists recently predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that are largely influenced by human activities will double in the next 50 to 100 years. |
| A．different |
| B．identical |
| C．comparable |
| D．changeable |
| A．Sea levels will fall. |
| B．The effects will not occur in some regions of the world. |
| C．The local plants and forests will be permanently damaged. |
| D．It is hard to know exactly what form the local effects will take. |
| A．Raising livestock and growing rice are the actions of humans. |
| B．The surface of the land and ocean can help decrease the temperature of Earth. |
| C．Although carbon dioxide concentration may double in the future, temperatures at the North Pole and South Pole may not change. |
| D．Nitrogen oxides absorb infrared radiation that can increase the temperature of Earth. |
