你知道最益智的遊戲是什麼嗎?(雙語圖文)

People playing computer games to train their brains might as well be playing Super Mario, a new research suggests. In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive skills didn’t get any smarter.

一項新研究表明，想通過玩電腦遊戲來鍛鍊大腦的人倒不如去玩“超級瑪麗”（譯者注：日本任天堂公司上世紀推出的一款紅白機小遊戲）。在一項爲期六週的研究中，專家發現，以提高玩家認知能力爲目的的網絡遊戲並沒有使玩家變得更聰明。

Researchers recruited participants from viewers of the BBC’s science show “Bang Goes the Theory.” More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week.

研究人員從英國廣播公司的科學節目“理論大爆炸”的觀衆中招募人員參與該項研究。8600 多名年齡介於18歲至60歲的參與者被要求玩一些由研究人員設計的網絡益智遊戲，每天至少玩十分鐘，每週三次。這些網絡遊戲的設計目的是提高玩家的記憶力、推理能力和其他能力。

They were compared to more than 2,700 people who didn’t play any brain games, but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet and answering general knowledge questions. All participants were given IQ test before and after the experiment. Researchers said the people who did the brain training didn’t do any better on the test after six weeks than people who had simply been on the Internet. On some sections of the test, the people who surfed the Net scored higher than those playing the games.

研究人員將這些參與者與2700多名沒有玩任何益智遊戲，但用相同時間上網並參與普通知識問答的人作對比。在實驗前後，所有參與者均接受了智商測試。研究人員說，在六個星期後的智商測試中，玩益智遊戲的人並沒有比那些單純上網的人表現得更爲出色。在測試的某些環節，單純上網的人獲得的分數比玩遊戲的人還要高。

The study was published online by the journal Nature. “If you’re (playing these games) because they’re fun, that’s absolutely fine,” said Adrian Owen, the study’s lead author. “But if you’re expecting (these games) to improve your IQ, our data suggests this isn’t the case.”

這一研究結果發表在《自然》雜誌的網站上。該研究報告的第一作者阿德里安·歐文說： “如果你玩（這些遊戲）是因爲它們使你開心，那當然非常好。但如果你期待（這些遊戲）能提高你的智商，我們的數據顯示，這不太可能。”