【Whetherwe’re2yearsoldor62,ourreasonsforlyingaremostlythesame:togetoutoftrouble,forpersonalgainandtomakeourselveslookbetterintheeyesofothers.Butagrowingbodyofresearchisraisingquestionsabouthowachild】
Whetherwe’re2yearsoldor62,ourreasonsforlyingaremostlythesame:togetoutoftrouble,forpersonalgainandtomakeourselveslookbetterintheeyesofothers.Butagrowingbodyofresearchisraisingquestionsabouthowachild’slieisdifferentfromanadult’slie,andhowthewaywedeceivechangesaswegrow.
“Parentsandteacherswhocatchtheirchildrenlyingshouldnotbealarmed.Theirchildrenarenotgoingtoturnouttobeabnormalliars,”saysDr.Lee,aprofessorattheUniversityofTorontoanddirectoroftheInstituteofChildStudy.Hehasspentthelast15yearsstudyinghowlyingchangesaskidsgetolder,whysomepeopleliemorethanothersaswellaswhichfactorscanreducelying.Thefactthatchildrentellliesisasignthattheyhavereachedanewdevelopmentalstage.Dr.Leeconductedaseriesofstudiesinwhichtheybringchildrenintoalabwithhiddencameras.Childrenandyoungadultsaged2to17arelikelytoliewhilebeingtoldnottolookatatoy,whichisputbehindthechild’sback.Whetherornotthechildtakesasecretlookiscaughtontape.
Foryoungkids,thedesiretocheatisbigand90%takeasecretlookintheseexperiments.Whenthetest-giverreturnstotheroom,thechildisaskedifheorshelookedsecretly.Atage2,aboutaquarterofchildrenwilllieandsaytheydidn’t.By3,halfofkidswilllie,andby4,thatfigureis90%,studiesshow.
Researchershavefoundthatit’skidswithbetterunderstandingabilitieswholiemore.That’sbecausetolieyoualsohavetokeepthetruthinmind,whichincludesmanybrainprocesses,suchascombiningseveralsourcesofinformationandfakingthatinformation.Theabilitytolie—andliesuccessfully —isthoughttoberelatedtodevelopmentofbrainregionsthatallowsocalled“executivefunctioning”,orhigherorderthinkingandreasoningabilities.Kidswhoperformbetteronteststhatinvolveexecutivefunctioningalsoliemore.
小题1:What’sthepurposeofchildrentellinglies?A．Tohelptheirfriendsout.B．Togetridoftrouble.C．Togetattentionfromothers.D．Tocreateapopularimage.小题2:Theunderlinedword“deceive”inParagraph1canbereplacedby“ ”.A．telllies