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系。

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：板球規則是什么?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信息：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：當人們接受的信息達到了最大負荷的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后，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.

為什么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，比如我醉酒后腦子被撞了一下，那么我的PERRL便不存在了。其他的征象也能提示腦損傷，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.你讓我有欲望

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“有欲望了”，那么瞳孔便會擴大。

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，并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。