Sensing phantom phone vibrations(手机虚幻震动) is a strangely common experience
2014-11-25 21:20:42 A | A

 Sensing phantom phone vibrations(手机虚幻震动) is a strangely common experience. Around 80% of us have imagined a phone vibrating in our pockets when it’s actually completely still. Almost 30% of us have also heard non-existent ringing. Are these signs of madness caused by digital culture? Not at all. In fact, phantom vibrations and ringing indicate a fundamental principle in psychology.

 
Psychologists use a concept called Signal Detection Theory to guide their thinking about the problem of perceptual(感知的) judgments. Working through the example of phone vibrations, we can see how this theory explains why they are a common and unavoidable part of healthy mental function.
 
When your phone is in your pocket, the world is in one of two possible states the phone is either ringing or not. You also have two possible states of mind the judgment that the phone is ringing, or the judgment that it isn’t. Obviously you’d like to match these states in the correct way. True vibrations should go with “it’s ringing”, and no vibrations should go with “it’s not ringing”. Signal detection theory calls these faithful matches a “hit” and a “correct rejection”
 
But there are two other possible combinations you could mismatch true vibrations with “it’s not ringing” (a “miss”); or mismatch the absence of vibrations with “it’s ringing” (a “false alarm”). This second kind of mismatch is what’s going on when you imagine a phantom phone vibration.
 
What does that mean in terms of your phone? We can assume that people like to notice when their phone is ringing, and that most people hate missing a call. This means their perceptual systems have adjusted their bias(偏向) to a level that makes misses unlikely. The unavoidable cost is a raised likelihood of false alarms of phantom phone vibrations.
 
The trade-off between false alarms and misses also explains why we all have to put up with fire alarms going off when there isn’t a fire. It isn’t that the alarms are badly designed, but rather that they are very sensible to smoke and heat and biased to avoid missing a real fire at all costs. The outcome is a rise in the number of false alarms. These are inconvenient, but nowhere near as inconvenient as burning to death in your bed or office. The alarms are designed to err on the side of caution.
 
63. The writer tries to explain phantom phone vibrations        .
 
A. by analyzing some facts               B. by giving some examples
 
C. from the angle of biology              D. from the angle of psychology
 
64. According to the writer, the sense of phantom phone vibration is        .
 
A. strange and mad                  B. harmful but avoidable
 
C. common and unavoidable             D. universal but unhealthy
 
65. When we judge correctly that “it’s not ringing”, this is called a “        ”.
 
A. hit         B. miss        C. false alarm        D. correct rejection
 
66. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?
 
A. Better late than never.                 B. Better safe than sorry.
 
C. Fight over the smallest things.           D. He who makes no mistakes makes nothing.
 
 
 
英语阅读答案
 
63-66 DCDB
 
    遥感影像的手机振动(手机虚幻震动)是一个奇怪的共同经验。80%我们想象我们口袋中的手机振动时,它实际上是完全静止的。几乎30%的我们也听到了不存在的振铃。这些疯狂的症状的数字文化造成的?不是所有的。事实上,幻影振动和振铃指示心理学的基本原理。
    心理学家用一个概念叫信号检测理论来指导他们对感性问题的思考(感知的)判断。通过手机振动的例子,我们可以看到这个理论解释了为什么他们是健康的精神功能的一个常见的和不可避免的一部分。
    当你的手机在你的口袋里,世界是在一种状态的手机铃声或不可能。你也有头脑的判断,电话响了两个可能的状态,或判断它是不是很明显你想匹配的正确方式这些状态。真正的振动应与“响”,无振动应与“不响”。信号检测论称这些忠实的匹配“打”和“正确拒绝”
    但有两个可能的组合可以不匹配的真实振动与“不响”(“小姐”);或不匹配的振动与“没有它的铃声”(“误报”)。这第二种失配是什么当你想象一个幽灵的手机振动。
    什么在你的手机上意味着什么?我们可以假设,人们喜欢看到他们的电话响了,和大多数人恨少了一个叫。这意味着他们的感知系统的调整自己的偏见(偏向)到一个水平,使没有不可能。不可避免的成本是提高影像手机振动误报的可能性。
    假警报之间的权衡和失误也解释了为什么我们都把火灾警报器时没有火。这并不是说警报都设计得很糟糕,而是他们对烟雾和热量非常明智和有偏见的避免丢失真实火灾不惜一切代价。结果是一个假警报的数量上升。这是不方便的,但远不及不便,在你的床上或办公室死烧。报警的目的是慎之又慎。