It turns out we’re not just awkward, our brains actually can’t handle the tasks of thinking of the right words and focusing on a face at the same time.

The effect becomes more noticeable when someone is trying to come up with less familiar words, which is thought to use the same mental resources as sustaining eye contact.

Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan put this to the test in 2016 by having 26 volunteers play word association games while staring at computer-generated faces.

When making eye contact, the participants found it harder to come up with links between words.

“Although eye contact and verbal processing appear independent, people frequently avert their eyes from interlocutors during conversation,” wrote the researchers.

“This suggests that there is interference between these processes.”

The volunteers were tested while looking at both animations of faces making eye contact and animations of faces looking away. They were also asked to think of links between easily associated words and words where there are a lot of competing associations.

For example, thinking of a verb for “knife” is relatively easy, because you can’t do much more than cut or stab with one. Coming up with an associated verb for “folder” is harder, considering you could open, close, or fill them.

It took the volunteers longer to think of words when they were making eye contact, but only when difficult word associations were involved. The researchers suspect the hesitation indicates the brain is handling too much information at once.

So while making eye contact and holding a conversation is certainly possible, there is evidence that they can both draw on the same pool of cognitive resources, and sometimes that pool starts to run a little dry.

The sample size used was pretty small, but it’s an interesting hypothesis.

In 2015, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo demonstrated that staring into someone else’s eyes for just 10 minutes induced an altered state of consciousness. Participants saw hallucinations of monsters, their relatives and even their own faces.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【谈话者】tánhuàzhě interlocutor one who takes part in dialogue or conversation

【幻觉】huànjué hallucination a sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind

事实上，我们并不只是害羞，而是大脑无法同时兼顾“思考恰当词汇”和“眼神接触”的任务。

当人们努力搜索不太熟悉的词汇时，这个效应会更加明显。科学家认为，这两项任务占用同样的大脑资源。

2016年，日本京都大学的科学家们为此进行了一项实验。他们让26名志愿者在玩词汇联想游戏的同时，盯着由计算机生成的脸庞。

在进行眼神接触时，受试者更难想出词汇之间的关联。

研究人员写道：“尽管眼神交流和语言处理似乎是独立的，但人们经常在谈话中避开对话者的眼睛。”

“这表明，这两个过程之间存在干扰。”

志愿者在测试中盯着的图画脸庞既有直视镜头的，也有看向其他方向的。他们进行联想的词汇有容易联想的词，也有可以联想到大量不同信息的词。

举例而言：联想和“刀（knife）”有关的动词比较简单，我们通常只能用刀来“切（cut）”或者“刺（stab）”。联想和“文件夹（folder）”有关的动词更加困难，因为你可以打开（open）”、“合上（close）”或者“装满（fill）”文件夹。

志愿者在进行眼神接触时，需要花更长时间才能想出答案——但这种效应只发生在困难任务中。研究人员推测：这种迟疑意味着，大脑同时处理太多信息了。

虽然人们的确能在交流时保持眼神接触，但有证据表明，这两个过程从相同的大脑认知资源池中提取信息，以至于有时候这个池子开始有些见底了。

实验采用的样本非常少，但这是一个很有意思的假设。

2015年，意大利心理学家乔瓦尼•卡普托证明，只要盯着某人眼睛10分钟，就会诱发意识改变状态。受试者会看到各种幻想，如怪物、亲人、甚至自己的脸庞。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)