为什么困惑可能对你有好处

为什么困惑可能对你有好处

The headline for this article may leave you a little, well, confused.

这篇文章的标题可能会让你有点困惑。

After all, we've long associated the mental stutter that occurs when we don't understand something to be a shortcoming, a glitch in our central processing unit. Or worse, confusion could mark serious cognitive decline, perhaps even a disease-related impairment.

毕竟，我们很长时间以来都认为，当我们不明白某件事是缺点，是中央处理器的一个小故障时，就会出现精神上的口吃。更糟的是，困惑可能标志着严重的认知能力下降，甚至可能是疾病相关的损害。

Depending on how open we are to a little confusion, it can spur the mind to understand a difficult concept. (Photo: ImageFlow/Shutterstock)

You're probably OK. In fact, according to a new study, it isn't so much about being confused, but how we respond to that feeling that matters.

你没有问题。事实上，根据一项新的研究，这并不是关于困惑，而是我们如何应对这种感觉。

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggests some people make confusion work for them — prompting them to learn more about something they don't initially understand.

这项发表在《人格与社会心理学杂志》上的研究表明，有些人让困惑为他们服务——促使他们去学习更多他们最初不理解的东西。

Others, on the other hand, react to confusion by turning away from the subject completely.

另一方面，另一些人对困惑的反应则是完全避开这个话题。

It all comes down to how people respond to feelings of uncertainty and bewilderment, the research suggests.

研究表明，这完全取决于人们如何应对不确定和困惑的感觉。

Reacting to confusion

应对困惑

What's your response when faced with befuddlement? (Photo: Peshkova/Shutterstock)

To test their theory, University of Notre Dame researchers invited test subjects to learning sessions that involved a complex idea. Then they intentionally ratcheted up the confusion — and monitored participants' reactions.

为了验证他们的理论，圣母大学的研究人员邀请实验对象参加涉及复杂概念的学习课程。然后他们故意加剧这种困惑，并观察参与者的反应。

Or, in the appropriately bewildering language of the study, "Confusion was experimentally induced via a contradictory-information manipulation involving the animated agents expressing incorrect and/or contradictory opinions and asking the (human) learners to decide which opinion had more scientific merit."

或者，用研究中适当的令人困惑的语言来说，“通过一种矛盾信息的操作，通过实验引起了混淆，这涉及到动画代理表达不正确和/或矛盾的观点，并要求(人类)学习者决定哪种观点更有科学价值。”

Got that? Yeah, same here.

明白了吗?是的,我也一样。

It's the kind of language that separates confused people into two groups: the learn-more-about-it kind and the not-today-thanks kind.

这种语言把困惑的人分成两类:“多学点”类和“不要今天就说谢谢”类。

To make matters murkier, the scientists ensured there was a fundamental contradiction in each of the scientific models discussed in case studies.

更糟糕的是，科学家们确信案例研究中讨论的每一个科学模型都存在根本的矛盾。

At the end of each discussion, participants were tested on their understanding of the subject. Interestingly, people who had reported higher rates of confusion were also better able to grasp the subject — and identify the scientific contradictions.

每次讨论结束时，参与者都要接受对主题理解程度的测试。有趣的是，那些报告有较高困惑率的人也能更好地掌握主题——并识别科学上的矛盾。

Essentially, they had a positive reaction to confusion, using it as a motivation to wrap their heads around a subject. For them, confusion was a preface to learning something new.

从本质上讲，他们对困惑有积极的反应，把它作为一种动机来围绕一个主题进行思考。对他们来说，困惑是学习新事物的序幕。

They demonstrated what behavioral scientist Nick Hobson describes as a high degree of openness.

他们展示了行为科学家尼克·霍布森所描述的高度开放性。

"Openness is associated with the experience of immersion, absorption and wonderment," he writes in The Behaviorist. "Individuals higher in openness are fascinated by complex situations and tend to have more nuanced experiences. It is characterized by a greater tolerance of ambiguity."

他在《行为主义者》中写道:“开放与沉浸、专注和惊奇的体验有关。”“开放度较高的人会被复杂的情况所吸引，往往会有更多微妙的经历。它的特点是对歧义有更大的容忍度。”

There is, however, an important caveat. D'Mello cautions against deliberately sowing confusion in the context of learning. People already struggling to understand a concept — especially one that they're under pressure to understand — may not benefit from the added confusion.

然而，有一个重要的警告。德梅洛警告说，不要在学习的过程中故意制造困惑。人们已经在努力理解一个概念——尤其是他们在压力下要理解的概念——可能不会从额外的困惑中受益。

Instead, confusion may work best for people who are actually looking for a challenge and don't face consequences for taking a chance to learn something new.

相反，对于那些正在寻找挑战的人来说，困惑可能是最好的解决方法，而且他们也不会因为尝试学习新东西而面临后果。

Those would be the intellectual risk-takers who are spurred on, rather than dissuaded by feelings of confusion. And perhaps even those who find themselves right here at this very moment. Congratulations on following up on your initial confusion.

这些人是智力上敢于冒险的人，他们会受到困惑感的激励，而不是劝阻。甚至是那些此时此刻发现自己就处在困惑中的人。祝贺你在最初的困惑中坚持了下来。