Our pupils, the black holes which let light into the eyes, don't just help us see, they also signal what's going on in our minds.

　　瞳孔，那個控制光亮入眼的小黑洞，不僅能幫助我們看見世界，還同樣能反映出心理活動。

　　Here are 10 pieces of psychological research which show how changes in pupil size reveal many aspects of thought.

　　心理學研究列出了10項瞳孔變化與心理活動的關係。

　　1. I'm thinking hard

　　1.我在努力思考

　　Look into my eyes and ask me to name the cigar-smoking founder of psychoanalysis and you won't see much change in my pupil size. The name Sigmund Freud comes easily to my lips.

　　假如你盯著我的眼睛問道：那個愛抽雪茄的心理分析奠基人叫啥？我會不假思索地答道：弗洛伊德。與此同時，我的瞳孔和先前相比，不會有太大變化。

　　But ask me to explain the laws of cricket and watch my pupils expand.

　　但假如你問的是：板球規則是什麼？與此同時，你會看到：我的瞳孔擴大了。

　　That's because research has shown that the harder your brain works, the more your pupils dilate. When Hess and Polt gave participants more and more difficult tasks to complete, their pupils got bigger and bigger.

　　這是因為：研究表明，當人思考得越努力，瞳孔就會變得越大。當Hess和Polt(譯注：1960年研究瞳孔大小與心智歷程的兩位主要研究者)接連給出受試者越來越難的任務時，他們觀察到，受試者的瞳孔變得越來越大了。

　　My brain is overloaded

　　2.我的腦子負荷太大了

　　Keep watching my eyes closely and you'll spot the point when explaining the laws of cricket gets too much.

　　仔細看著我的眼睛，你會注意到，在和我詳細解釋板球規則的某個時刻，我的瞳孔有了變化，它正在向你傳遞這樣一個資訊：我腦子不夠用了。

　　Poock reported that when participants' minds were loaded to 125% of their capacity, their pupils constricted.

　　Poock的研究顯示：當人們接受的資訊達到了最大負荷的125%時，他們的瞳孔會縮小。

　　It'll be trying to explain a googly that will do it. (Don't ask).

　　估計話題換成曲棍球規則後，結果也一樣。（所以還是別問了吧）

　　3. I'm brain damaged

　　3.腦損傷

　　The reason doctors and paramedics flash a light in patients' eyes is to check their brains are working normally (and because it's such an easy test to do). They use the acronym PERRL: the Pupils should be Equal, Round and Reactive to Light.

　　為什麼醫生和護理人員們會用一個手電筒照眼睛？為了檢查腦功能是否正常。它操作起來非常簡便易行。他們用PERRL的縮寫來表示：即，瞳孔(Pupil)應該雙側等大(Equal)，等圓(Round)，對光反射存在(Reactive to Light)。

　　If my brain is broken, say, because I've had a bump on the noggin, you won't see PERRL. There may well be other extremely subtle clues, like the blood pouring from my head.

　　若大腦受到損傷，比如我醉酒後腦子被撞了一下，那麼我的PERRL便不存在了。其他的徵象也能提示腦損傷，比如頭部出血。

　　4. You're holding my interest

　　4. 你激起了我的興趣

　　The size of my pupils can also signal whether I'm interested in what you're saying.

　　瞳孔的大小同樣能提示我對你的言論是否有興趣。

　　White and Maltzman had participants listening to excerpts from three books: one was erotic, another involved mutilation while a third was neutral.

　　White和Maltzman讓受試者聆聽三本不同的書本章節：分別為色情、傷殘和不痛不癢的三種內容。

　　Their pupils widened at first for all three. But they only remained wide for the passages that were erotic or involved mutilation.

　　受試者的瞳孔起初都放大了。但只有聆聽色情和傷殘部分的受試者瞳孔持續在擴大狀態。

　　I'm likely to be interested in anything new, so my pupils will dilate a bit at first, but they'll only stay dilated if I continue to be interested.

　　人們在接觸感興趣的新事物時瞳孔會放大，但除非你一直很感興趣，否則瞳孔就會縮小。

　　5. You're turning me on

　　5.你讓我有慾望

　　If things take a sexual turn then our eyes are also involved. Both men and women's pupils expand when they are sexually aroused.

　　扯上一個“性”字，我們的眼睛也會變化。無論男女，只要他們感到“有慾望了”，那麼瞳孔便會擴大。

　　However, not everyone agrees big pupils are a signal of sexual arousal. It tends to get tested by showing nude pictures to people and some argue that we're just really interested in the nude form.

　　然而，並不是所有人都同意這個觀點。因為該結論是通過給受試者放裸體圖片得到的，因此有些人認為，我們的瞳孔會放大，只不過是因為我們對裸體圖片感興趣罷了。

　　6. You disgust me

　　6.你噁心到我了

　　Just as my pupils increase in size when I'm interested or turned on, so they constrict when I'm disgusted.

　　瞳孔散大表示興趣，縮小則意味著厭惡。

　　Hess (1972) showed people pictures of injured children. First people's pupils dilated because of the shock and then they constricted to try and avoid the troubling images.

　　Hess在1972年的實驗中給受試者觀看受傷的孩童照片。人們的瞳孔起初因震驚而變大，很快又開始縮小，以避免觀看這類令人難受的圖片。

　　7. Whether I'm liberal or conservative

　　7.能反映出你是自由派還是保守派

　　Should you happen to be carrying around pictures of politicians you might be able to work out whether I'm a liberal or a conservative just from my pupil size.

　　如果你拿著政客們的照片晃來晃去，那麼只需直視我的眼睛，就能發現我是個自由派，還是保守派。

　　Barlow (1969) showed people pictures of Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The liberals' pupils dilated when they saw fellow liberals Johnson and King but constricted when they saw conservative Wallace. Conservatives showed the opposite pattern.

　　Barlow1969 年的實驗裏給受試者們觀看了Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace 和Martin Luther King, Jr.的照片，自由派的受試者們一看到Johnson和King的照片，瞳孔立即變大了；而見到Wallace則變小，因為他是保守派的。同樣，保守派的 受試者們也出現了相符的反應。

　　8. I'm in pain

　　8.我感到疼痛

　　If you've had enough of this article now and want to cause me some pain in return, then why not stab me with a pencil? If you're watching closely you'll see my pupils dilate.

　　是不是已經開始嫌我太絮絮叨叨了，恨不得朝我捅根鉛筆？如果您真這麼做了，便會發現——我的瞳孔，擴大了。

　　Chapman et al. fired small electric shocks into people's fingertips and measured how much their pupils dilated. At maximum intensity the pupils dilated by about 0.2mm.

　　Chapman等人在受試者的指尖進行微小的電刺激，並測量瞳孔變化。當實驗電刺激達到頂峰時，瞳孔可以擴大0.2mm。

　　But that was only to a relatively tame current. Imagine what you could do to my pupils if you plugged me into the mains.

　　不過那個實驗帶來的疼痛值只能說明瞳孔對微弱痛感的反應。要是你真捅我一下子，瞳孔估計得大過葡萄了。（喂，你的眼睛有這麼大嗎？）

　　9. I'm on drugs

　　9.我嗑藥了...

　　And you can narrow down the type by looking at my pupils.

　　你甚至都能通過瞳孔判斷出我嗑的是哪類藥。

　　Some drugs, like alcohol and opioids cause the pupils to constrict. Others, like amphetamine, cocaine, LSD and mescaline cause them to dilate.

　　酒精和鴉片有縮瞳作用，其他的，比如安非他明、可卡因、LSD以及墨斯卡靈，都有擴瞳的作用。

　　Police officers know this and some use it as one way of checking if someone is off their face. They generally look for pupils constricted to either less than 3mm or dilated to more than 6.5mm.

　　警察們深知這一點。他們會檢查嗑藥者的瞳孔，通常小于3mm或大於6.5mm的瞳孔都是有嫌疑的。

　　10. My personality

　　10.我的性格

　　This one is not strictly related to pupil dilation, but it's too good to leave out.

　　雖然這條跟瞳孔沒什麼實質關係，但我捨不得把它給略掉。

　　If you look closely at the coloured part of my eye, the iris, you might even get some clues as to my personality.

　　因為，如果你近距離地凝視我眼中的著色部分，即虹膜——你甚至能獲知一些我性格的秘密。