Women ’better at multitasking’ than men, study finds 研究發現女人比男人「更擅長多工」

《中英對照讀新聞》Women ’better at multitasking’ than men, study finds 研究發現女人比男人「更擅長多工」

◎魏國金

It is not a myth - women really are better than men at multitasking, at least in certain cases, a study says.

這不是迷思：女人真的比男人更擅長同時處理多項事務，至少在某些情況下是如此，一份研究指出。

Men were slower and less organised than women when switching rapidly between tasks in tests by UK psychologists.

英國心理學家所做的測驗中，在數個任務間快速轉換時，男人的動作比女人慢，而且比較沒有條理。

Both sexes struggled to cope with juggling priorities, but men suffered more on average, according to the paper in the journal BMC Psychology.

男、女性都要費很大心力才能同時應付多項要務，但平均來說，男人吃的苦頭較多，根據這份發表在「生物醫學中心：心理學」期刊的報告。

It says： "The question now is why? And is it all types of multitasking or only certain situations?"

報告說：「現在問題是，為什麼？是所有形式的多工都這樣，還是只有某些情況下是如此？」

The researchers hope to encourage more research on a topic which they say has attracted "astonishingly few" studies - considering how often the "women vs men" debate crops up in conversation.

鑑於日常談話中常出現這種「女人與男人相比」的爭論，研究人員希望鼓勵更多研究探討這個他們所說「令人驚訝地乏人問津的」議題。

If men really are slower than women, it could have serious implications for how workplaces are organised, says co-author Dr Gijsbert Stoet, of the University of Glasgow.

如果男人多工時的動作比女人慢，將可能嚴重影響職場人力安排，報告共同作者、格拉斯哥大學史托特博士說。

"Multitasking is getting more and more important in the office - but it’s very distracting, all these gadgets interrupting our workflow.

「多工在辦公室裡越來越重要，但它非常容易使人分心，所有這類瑣事打斷我們的工作流程。」

"It could be that men suffer more from this constant switching," he told BBC News.

「男人可能從這種持續不斷地切換任務中受到較多折磨」，他向英國廣播公司新聞網說。

新聞辭典

cope with：動詞片語，應付，對付。例句：We are unable to cope with the disaster alone.（我們沒辦法獨力處理這場災難。）

juggle：動詞，耍弄，歪曲（事實）；帶有困難地同時進行多項事務。例句：The single mother has to juggle two part-time jobs and her children.（這位單親媽媽得兼顧兩份兼職工作和她的孩子。）

crop up：動詞片語，出現、發生。例句：New problems cropped up one after another during our test.（在我們測試期間，問題接二連三地出現。） 

本文來源:自由電子報 http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2013/new/dec/4/today-int5.htm