新研究發現 人們平均能夠記住5000張面孔!

From family and friends to strangers on the subway and public figures on 24-hour news cycles, humans recognise an astonishing 5,000 faces, scientists said in a study.

科學家在一項研究中指出，從親朋好友到地鐵上的陌生人，再到24小時新聞循環報道中的公衆人物，人類竟然可以分辨出5000張人臉。

Through most of history humans lived in small groups of a hundred or so individuals, a pattern that has changed drastically in recent centuries.

在歷史上的大多數時間裏，人類都生活在100人左右的小型羣體中，但這種模式在近幾個世紀裏發生了巨大變化。

A study by scientists at Britain's University of York found that our facial recognition abilities allow us to process the thousands of faces we encounter in busy social environments, on our smartphones and our television screens every day.

英國約克大學的科學家進行的一項研究發現，人類的人臉識別能力使人們能夠對自己每天在繁忙的社交環境中、智能手機裏和電視屏幕上遇到的數千張面孔進行處理。

"In everyday life, we are used to identifying friends, colleagues, and celebrities, and many other people by their faces," Rob Jenkins, from York's Department of Psychology, told AFP. "But no one has established how many faces people actually know."

約克大學心理學系的羅布·詹金斯向法新社透露：“在日常生活中，我們習慣於通過面孔辨認朋友、同事、名人和其他許多人。但還沒有人確認過人們究竟能識別出多少張面孔。”

For the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Jenkins and his team asked participants to write down as many faces they could remember from their personal lives.

這項研究發表在英國《皇家學會生物學分會學報》上。爲了進行該研究，詹金斯和他的團隊要求參與者們儘可能多地記下他們能夠想起的生活中的人的面孔。

The volunteers were then asked to do the same with people they recognised but did not know personally.

接着這些志願者被要求儘可能多地記下自己能認出但在生活中並不認識的人的面孔。

They were also shown thousands of images of famous people -- two photos of each to ensure consistency -- and asked which ones they recognised.

此外，研究人員還向參與者展示了數千張名人的照片--每個名人有兩張照片以確保一致性--並詢問他們認出了其中的哪些名人。

The team found an enormous range of the number of faces each participant could recall, from roughly 1,000-10,000.

研究團隊發現，每位參與者能夠回憶起的人臉的數量存在巨大差異，從大約1000張到1萬張不等。

"We found that people know around 5,000 faces on average," Jenkins said. "It seems that whatever mental apparatus allows us to differentiate dozens of people also allows us to differentiate thousands of people."

詹金斯表示：“我們發現人們平均大約能識別5000張面孔。看來，我們的思維工具能讓我們識別出幾十個人，同樣也能識別出幾千個人。”

The team said it believes this figure -- the first ever baseline of human "facial vocabulary", could aid the development of facial recognition software increasingly used at airports and criminal investigations.

研究團隊稱，他們認爲這一數字--迄今第一個關於人類“面孔詞彙量”的基準數目--可能有助於在機場和刑事調查中越來越多使用的面部識別軟件的開發。

It may also help scientists better understand cases of mistaken identity.

它也許還能幫助科學家們更好地理解身份被弄錯的案例。

"Psychological research in humans has revealed important differences between unfamiliar and familiar face recognition," said Jenkins. "Unfamiliar faces are often misidentified. Familiar faces are identified very reliably, but we don't know exactly how."

詹金斯表示：“對人類的心理學研究已經揭示了識別陌生面孔和熟悉面孔之間的重要差別。陌生面孔往往會被認錯，熟悉的面孔則會被非常確定地認出，但我們不清楚其中的確切機制。”

While the team said it was focused on how many faces humans actually know, they said it might be possible for some people to continue learning to recognise an unlimited number of faces, given enough practice.

儘管研究團隊稱此項研究關注的是人類究竟認識多少張面孔，但他們表示，如果進行足夠多的練習，有些人也許可以持續學習，從而識別無限數目的面孔。