2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：人工智能和心理学

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》.杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Artificial intelligence and psychology

　　人工智能和心理学

　　The computer will see you now

　　现在电脑能给你看病了

　　A virtual shrink may sometimes be better than thereal thing

　　有时候，虚拟缩小版反而比实际事物更好

　　ELLIE is a psychologist, and a damned good oneat that. Smile in a certain way, and she knows precisely what your smile means. Develop anervous tic or tension in an eye, and she instantly picks up on it. She listens to what yousay, processes every word, works out the meaning of your pitch, your tone, your posture,everything. She is at the top of her game but, according to a new study, her greatest asset isthat she is not human.

　　Ellie是一名心理学家，而且长于此道。面带职业化微笑的她，清楚的知道你每个笑容的含义。即便是简单的神经抽搐或者眼神紧张，她也能立刻注意到这个细节。她仔细聆听你的表达，分辨每一个字词，研究你每个音调、口音、手势等所有小动作的含义。最新研究认为，她处在行业顶端的最大优势在于，她不是人类。

　　When faced with tough or potentially embarrassing questions, people often do not telldoctors what they need to hear. Yet the researchers behind Ellie, led by Jonathan Gratch atthe Institute for Creative Technologies, in Los Angeles, suspected from their years ofmonitoring human interactions with computers that people might be more willing to talk ifpresented with an avatar. To test this idea, they put 239 people in front of Ellie to have a chatwith her about their lives. Half were told they would be interacting with an artificiallyintelligent virtual human; the others were told that Ellie was a bit like a puppet, and washaving her strings pulled remotely by a person.

　　当面临艰难决定，或可能尴尬的问题的时候，人们一般并不会告诉医生他需要听到的内容。然而来自洛杉矶的创新技术研究所的研究人员，在Jonathan Gratch的领导下，根据多年使用电脑监控人际交流的结果，认为人们更愿意对着虚拟头像吐露真心。为测试这一想法，他们请了239人同Ellie当面交流他们的生活。其中一半被告知实情，即他们同人工智能在互动;同时误导另外一半，告诉他们Ellie就像是一个傀儡，被某个人远程操控。

　　Designed to search for psychological problems, Ellie worked with each participant in thestudy in the same manner. She started every interview with rapport-building questions,such as, “Where are you from?” She followed these with more clinical ones, like, “How easyis it for you to get a good night's sleep?” She finished with questions intended to boost theparticipant's mood, for instance, “What are you most proud of?” Throughout the experienceshe asked relevant follow-up questions—“Can you tell me more about that?” forexample—while providing the appropriate nods and facial expressions.

　　为研究心理问题而设计的Ellie以相同的方式同每个参与者互动。每次会谈她都以拉家常的问题开始，比如“你从哪儿来?”然后继以更医学性的问题，比如“你晚上睡眠质量如何?”最后她的问题会刺激参与者的情绪，比如“你最骄傲的事是什么?”在整个过程中，她会问到相关的后继问题，比如“能不能多聊聊这个?”同时还会适时地点头，做出恰当地面部表情。

　　Lie on the couch, please

　　请躺在沙发上

　　During their time with Ellie, all participants had their faces scanned for signs of sadness, andwere given a score ranging from zero to one.Also, three real, human psychologists, whowere ignorant of the purpose of the study, analysed transcripts of the sessions, to rate howwillingly the participants disclosed personal information.

　　在同Ellie共处的时候，所有的参与者的面部都会被扫描，以寻找悲伤的特征，并评以0到10分。同时，三位真正的人类心理学家，在对此研究的目的一无所知的情况下，分析会谈的视频，并排出参与人员披露个人信息的意愿。

　　These observers were asked to look at responses to sensitive and intimate questions, suchas, “How close are you to your family?” and, “Tell me about the last time you felt reallyhappy.” They rated the responses to these on a seven-point scale ranging from -3 to +3. Allparticipants were also asked to fill out questionnaires intended to probe how they felt aboutthe interview.

　　这些观察人员要注意对敏感而亲密的问题的回答，比如“你同你家庭有多亲密?”和“告诉我你上次觉得真的高兴是什么时候。”他们根据七分制对这些回答进行排序，-3表明完全不愿意表露信息，+3表示非常愿意。所有的参与人员也要填写调查问卷，以说明他们对此次会谈的感觉。

　　Dr Gratch and his colleagues report in Computers in Human Behaviour that, though everyoneinteracted with the same avatar, their experiences differed markedly based on what theybelieved they were dealing with. Those who thought Ellie was under the control of a humanoperator reported greater fear of disclosing personal information, and said they managedmore carefully what they expressed during the session, than did those who believed theywere simply interacting with a computer.

　　Gratch博士及其同事在《人类行为同电脑》上报道称，尽管每个人都与同一个头像进行互动，他们的体验却显著地取决于他们认为自己所交流的对象。同认为仅仅是同电脑互动的人相比，那些认为Ellie是在人类控制下的参与者更担心揭露个人信息，并认为在会谈期间，他们对表达的内容更细心在意。

　　Crucially, the psychologists observing the subjects found that those who thought they weredealing with a human were indeed less forthcoming, averaging 0.56 compared with theother group's average score of 1.11. The first group also betrayed fewer signs of sadness,averaging 0.08 compared with the other group's 0.12 sadness score.

　　重要的是，监测这一过程的心理学家发现，那些认为是在同人类交流的参与者，确实更内向。相比于另一组的1.11的平均值，他们的平均值仅为0.56。第一组同样泄露出了较少的悲伤特征，平均0.08，而另一组的悲伤得分为0.12。

　　This quality of encouraging openness and honesty, Dr Gratch believes, will be ofparticular value in assessing the psychological problems of soldiers—a view shared byAmerica's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is helping to pay for theproject.

　　Gratch博士认为，鼓励开放和诚实的质量将在评估军人的心理学问题过程中起到重要作用。这一观点得到了美国国防高级研究计划局的认同。后者同时也是此项目的赞助方。

　　Soldiers place a premium on being tough, and many avoid seeing psychologists at all costs.That means conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, to which military men andwomen are particularly prone, often get dangerous before they are caught. Ellie couldchange things for the better by confidentially informing soldiers with PTSD that she feels theycould be a risk to themselves and others, and advising them about how to seek treatment.

　　军人对表现坚强尤其看重，而且许多人竭力避免去看心理医生。然而许多军人都很容易产生创伤后应激障碍的问题。这意味着在发现的时候，往往这一问题已经变得危险。Ellie能够改变这一现状，秘密通知她认为患有创伤后应激障碍的军人可能对患者自身及其他人构成威胁，并建议他们如何寻求治疗。

　　If, that is, a cynical trooper can be persuaded that Ellie really isn't a human psychologist indisguise. Because if Ellie can pass for human, presumably a human can pass for Ellie.

　　这一切的前提是，玩世不恭的兵哥哥要相信Ellie真的不是伪装了的人类心理学家。毕竟如果Ellie能够欺骗人类，那人类也能欺骗他。

词语解释

　　1.artificial intelligence 人工智能

　　Making robots that have to survive in real bodies,day to day on their own, is the only way to findartificial intelligence, or real intelligence.

　　制造一个能在真正的肉体里生存的，日复一日靠它自己的机器人，才是找到人工智能或者真正智能的唯一途径。

　　This is also the case with agent technology, as it is aform of artificial intelligence.

　　这同样适用于代理技术的情况，因为代理技术也是人工智能的一种。

　　2.pick up 捡起;获得;收拾

　　Where can you pick up your suitcase?

　　你在哪里取你的手提箱呢?

　　With this in mind, the next time you need a bit of time to yourself, pick up a book.

　　记住这个方法，下次当你需要一点自我放松的时间时，你则可以挑选一本书来阅读。

　　3.work out 解决;算出;实现

　　This is for those of you that work out.

　　这个是对那些在外面工作的人提出的建议。

　　Work out what you need to do first, and go for it-today.

　　首先确定你需要做什么，然后就行动-从今天开始。

　　4.need to 需要;需要做

　　You need to touch up the poem.

　　你需要给这首诗润色一下。

　　I must alert him to the need to solve the problem.

　　我必须使他认识到解决这问题的必要性。

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