黄君李

    如果你经常苦于自制力太薄弱的话，就放一杯加了糖的柠檬水在手边。当你感觉快要放弃的时候，用它来漱口，就会获得坚持下去的力量。
    这个结论来自于《心理学》（Psychological Science）杂志刊发的一篇最新的研究报告。佐治亚大学的研究人员招募了51名学生，让他们做两个测试自我控制力的任务。第一个任务是要求他们把一整本《统计年鉴》上所有的字母E都圈出来。以往的研究已经证实，这个冗长且沉闷的任务会极大地消耗人们的自我控制力。实验者参与的第二个任务叫斯特鲁普任务（Stroop），屏幕上会闪现许多表示颜色名称的单词，但是这些单词的字体的颜色和词义表达的颜色不同。被实验者需要立刻说出屏幕上单词的颜色（较困难）而非是词义（较简单）。
    在斯特鲁普任务开始之前，一半的学生用放了糖的柠檬水漱口而另一半学生是用蔗糖素柠檬水。结果发现，用含糖水漱口的学生在对颜色而非词义的反应速度方面要大大快于用人工甜味素漱口的学生。
    为什么会是这样？柠檬水中的葡萄糖似乎只要接触到舌头就会激活大脑中的认知动机中枢，因此，在完成高难度任务时，这就等于是给大脑一个助推力。
    “研究人员曾经认为，葡萄糖是必须要喝下去，进入到人体之后才能给人以额外的能量来提高自制力，”这篇报告的合作者、佐治亚大学心理学教授莱纳德·马丁（Leonard Martin）说：“这个实验发现，葡萄糖能够激活舌头上的‘糖感应器’，然后就会向大脑中与自我控制相关的认知动机中枢发送信号，这些信号就是在给身体以提醒。”
    由于葡萄糖是大脑的主要能量来源，因此，快速摄入的糖分能够提高注意力，这一点很容易说得通。但是研究人员认为，这个实验表明，糖分的作用不仅仅局限于提供能量支持。
    “（糖分）不仅能够提供能量，还可以令你将全部精力集中在手头做的事情上。若要完成需要一定自制力的任务的话，全神贯注地投入对你来说是必不可少的。”马丁说道。
    马丁这段话背后的理论依据就是“情感强化物”。这种强化物（比如糖）可以令人全神贯注于自己的目标，当人们感觉要放弃时，这类强化物也会加强内心的自我控制力。比如说，当你在健身房里感觉快要不行了的时候，它能帮你再多坚持半个小时。
    “在抑制身体自主反应方面，比如读斯特鲁普任务中的单词；或是在不逃避困难任务方面，比如说出单词的颜色，葡萄糖的效果似乎相当显著，”他说：“它能够加强情感投入以及需要自我控制目标的完成。”
还是不信？有个简单易行的方法来测试这个结果是否能站住脚。如果你再遇到坚持不下去的情形时，用含糖的柠檬水漱漱口。如果你这样做了，请在评论中告诉我们结果如何。


Need a Self-Control Boost? Gargle with Sugar Water!(南宁翻译公司）
If you’re struggling to keep your self-control on track, keep a bottle of lemonade made with real sugar handy. You won’t have to drink it, just swish and gargle when you’re feeling like giving up.
That’s the finding of new research published in the journal Psychological Science. Researchers from the University of Georgia recruited 51 students who performed two tasks to test self-control. The first task, which previous research has shown to deplete self-control, was tediously crossing out all the Es on a page from a statistics book. Then, participants performed what is known as the Stroop task where they were asked to identify the color of various words flashed on a screen, which spell out the names of other colors. The Stroop task’s goal is to turn off the student’s tendency to read the words (which is easy to do) and instead see the colors (which is harder to do).
Half of the students rinsed their mouths with lemonade sweetened with sugar while performing the Stroop test, the other half with Splenda-sweetened lemonade. Students who rinsed with sugar, rather than artificial sweetener, were significantly faster at responding to the color rather than the word.
Why? It seems that the glucose in the lemonade triggers the brain’s motivational centers simply by touching the tongue, giving the participants the extra push to complete the harder task.
“Researchers used to think you had to drink the glucose and get it into your body to give you the energy to (have) self control, ” said UGA psychology professor Leonard Martin, co-author of the study. “After this trial, it seems that glucose stimulates the simple carbohydrate sensors on the tongue. This, in turn, signals the motivational centers of the brain where our self-related goals are represented. These signals tell your body to pay attention.”
Since glucose is the brain’s primary energy source, it makes sense that a quick shot of sugar would crank up attention. But according to the researchers, this study suggests that the sugar is providing more than a simple energy boost.
“It doesn’t just crank up your energy, but it cranks up your personal investment in what you are doing. Clicking into the things that are important to you makes those self-related goals salient, ” said Martin.
The theory behind Martin’s statement is called “emotive enhancement, ” in which something (in this case sugar) leads a person to pay attention to their goals and not automatically act on an urge to stop investing self-control when they’re feeling depleted. An example might be staying an extra half an hour at the gym when you’re feeling like calling it quits.
“The glucose seems to be good at getting you to stop an automatic response such as reading the words in the Stroop task and to substitute the second harder one in its place such as saying the color the word is printed in, ” he said. “It can enhance emotive investment and self-relevant goals.”
Not convinced? Well there’s an easy way to test the findings and see if they hold up — just get a bottle of lemonade with real sugar and try gargling the next time you’re ready to tap out. If you give it a try, please let us know how it turned out in the comments section.

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