Looking at a memorable picture slows our sense of time， according to a newstudy. And the longer people think they have looked at an picture， the more likely3they are to remember it.

The new study is the result of a group of experiments4 by researchers atGeorge Mason University in the US. In the first two experiments， two groups ofaround 50 people each were shown pictures of scenes5. They have different sizes andnumbers of clutter6. For example， a small scene with a lot of clutter might be a fullcupboard， and a large scene without much clutter might be an empty warehouse7.

People were shown each picture for under a second and asked to press a buttonto show whether it was shown for a“l(fā)ong”or“short”time.

The results of both experiments showed that when people saw large scenes withlittle clutter， they were likely to think they had been looking at them for longer thanthey really had. And the opposite8 effect9 was true when seeing small scenes withlots of clutter.

In next experiments， the researchers showed 69 people some pictures that hadalready been rated10 for memorability11. They were more likely to think they hadbeen looking at more memorable pictures for longer than they really had. And thelonger they thought they had been looking at a picture， the more likely they were toremember it the next day.

When our sense of time slows down， it might help us get more information ifwe’re looking at something important. If we want to make time go more slowly， weshould do things that are new and interesting.

根據(jù)一項新的研究，看一張容易記憶的圖片會減緩我們對時間的感知。人們認知中自己曾觀看一張圖片的時間越長，他們就越有可能會記住它。

這項新研究是美國喬治梅森大學研究人員一組實驗的結果。在最初的兩個實驗中，研究者向兩組大約50 名參與者每人都展示了有場景的圖片，這些場景里有不同大小和數(shù)量的雜物。例如，有很多雜物的小場景可能是一個滿滿的櫥柜，而沒有太多雜物的大場景可能是一個空倉庫。

參與者看每張圖片的時間不到一秒鐘，還要按下一個按鈕來表示這張照片的播放時間是“長”還是“短”。

兩個實驗的結果都表明，當參與者看到?jīng)]有雜物的大場景時，他們可能會認為自己已經(jīng)看了比實際更長的時間。當看到雜亂的小場景時，則正好相反。

在接下來的實驗中，研究人員向69 名參與者展示了一些已經(jīng)被評定為好記的圖片。參與者更有可能認為他們看容易記住的圖片花的時間比實際要長。他們認為自己看一張圖片的時間越長，第二天就越有可能記住它。

當我們的時間知覺變慢時，如果我們在看重要的東西，它可能會幫助我們獲得更多信息。如果我們想讓時間過得慢一些，應該去做一些新奇又有趣的事情。

▏Notes

1. memorable 難忘的；值得紀念的

2. sense 感覺官能

3. likely 可能發(fā)生的

4. experiment 實驗；試驗

5. scene 事發(fā)地；現(xiàn)場；事件；場面

6. clutter 雜亂的東西；雜亂

7. warehouse 倉庫；貨棧；貨倉

8. opposite 完全相反的；截然不同的

9. effect 作用；影響

10. rate 評價；評定；被認為；被列為

11. memorability 值得記憶；難忘的人