奇速英语

        Young children tend to be better liars if they have good memories, according to a study. Scientists have found the first clear evidence that youngsters who are good liars have better verbal working memories. The best liars were able to make and cover stories for their lies without getting caught out, the researchers found.

          The study involved a quiz in which 114 six and seven-year-old children were trying to cheat by looking at an answer written on the back of a card with a picture of a monkey. First the children were given two easy questions: “What noise does a dog make?” and “What colour are bananas?” They were then asked if they knew the name of the cartoon character Spaceboy. Each child was left alone with an upturned card on which the answer was written, and told not to look at. The answer, Jim, was written on the back of the card in green ink.

         Unknown to the children, all this time they were being observed by a video camera hidden in a cardboard box. The scientists therefore knew who had looked at the back of the card and who had not. Children who got the answer right, and claimed they had not cheated, were tested with questions based on the written answer and accompanying picture.

         The children were asked if they could guess the colour of the writing or what the picture showed. If they covered their tracks by pretending not to know, or guessing wrongly on purpose, they were classified as good liars. Children who fell for one or both of the questions, showing that they knew more than they should, were rated as poor fibbers.

        The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, showed that good liars performed better in verbal working memory tests assessing both mental processing and recall. This may be because lying is less likely to require keeping track of visual images, the scientists believe.

本时文内容由奇速英语国际教育研究院原创编写，禁止复制和任何商业用途，版权所有，侵权必究！