覺得你很擅長邊走邊聊天?那你可能大錯特錯了!大綱
It's not uncommon to see pedestrians using their smartphones. It's actually uncommon to see pedestrians not using their phones. Whether they're hailing an Uber, figuring out which corner they should be on with a map app, or just scrolling through Instagram while waiting for the brunch squad to arrive, it seems walking and finger-typing are the peanut butter and jelly of, well, life.
現在人們邊走路邊玩手機的現象已經十分普遍了。看到人們走路不玩手機纔是稀罕事兒呢。不管人們是在叫優步，看着導航思考自己所在的角落，還是邊等早午餐小夥伴邊刷Instagram，邊走路邊打字好像都已經成爲了生活中的好基友。People may think that they're multitasking maestros, but a new study shows that they're wrong. Mental Floss reports that texting while walking slows down both activities.
也許，大家都以爲自己是多任務處理大師，但一項新研究表明他們都錯了。《心理牙線》雜誌報道：邊走路邊發短信會同時降低這兩個行爲的效率。The study, conducted by scientists at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K. and published in PLOS One, challenged a small sample of people (21, to be exact) to use their phones while traversing a short obstacle course. No, this was not some Spartan Race-style mix of fire pits and barbed wire, it was just an "18-foot-long walkway that contained a fibreboard a few inches high and a step-up box." The subjects braved the course while talking on their phones, reading a message, composing a message, and, finally, phone-free. Each test subject travelled the entire thing 12 times.
英國安吉利亞魯斯金大學的科學家們開展了這項研究，並於PLOS One期刊發表。這項研究對一小羣人（準確來說是21人）發起了挑戰，挑戰他們在玩手機的同時通過設有障礙物的短途路程。不，這不是斯巴達比賽式的火坑和鐵絲網，只是一條18英尺長的走道，走道上有幾英寸高的纖維板和升壓箱。受試者分別在拿着手機聊天、看短信、發短信和沒有手機的情況下勇往直前。每位受試者走這條路走了12次。
Of course, having the distraction of a phone slowed the subjects down. The researchers found that subjects also changed the way they walked while they used their phones. Steps were higher and strides were shorter, something the scientists called a "cautious stepping strategy." So not only does a phone slow things down all-around, it makes pedestrians look silly, too.
當然，被手機分散注意力的受試者速度有所減慢。研究員們發現：走路玩手機的那些人，他們的走路方式也發生了改變。腳擡得更高、但卻邁的更短，科學家將其稱之爲"謹慎的走路策略。"所以，手機不僅減慢了他們的整個速度，還讓他們看起來傻乎乎的。The test subjects took twice as long to traverse the course while writing a message and 67% longer when reading one. Talking on the phone slowed them down, too, but not as much as composing a text. Surprisingly, nobody fell down during the study.
邊走路邊發短信的受試者需花費2倍的時間才能走過這條路，而看短信則需要1.67倍的時長。雖然打電話也會讓他們放慢腳步，但卻沒有發短信的影響大。令人驚奇的是，研究中居然沒有人跌倒！The findings show that it's probably a good idea to separate the two activities if accuracy and actually getting places are the end goal. Not only does multitasking actually slow down the tasks at hand, everyone looks strange when they're craned over their phones, rushing to get from place to place.
研究結果表明：如果準確度和實際到達的地點是最終目標，那最好還是走路就認真走路、發短信就認真發短信吧。多任務不僅會減緩你處理手頭事務的速度，而且低着頭玩手機並急匆匆從這一點趕到另一點的行爲也很奇怪。
