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Two studies of perception: the retinas of depressed¹ people are far worse at responding to contrast; people doubt statements more when the speaker has a foreign accent.

A couple of studies on perception. First, there’s now visual data to back up the idea that everything looks kinda gray when you feel blue.

Researchers examined how the retina responds to different black-and-white contrast situations. They did the tests on healthy subjects and on patients with depression. Turns out that depressed people have much lower retinal responses—even if they’re on antidepressants. And the worse the depression, the worse the performance of the retina.

In fact, the retinal reaction alone was a good diagnostic of depression. So the world really can look blehhh to somebody who’s depressed. The research is in the journal Biological Psychiatry². ]

Study 2 looked at test subjects’ impressions of the honesty of simple factual statements made by other people. The researchers found that listeners were less likely to believe speakers with foreign accents. And the heavier the accent, the less believable they were perceived to be. The work appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology³. [

So our own accent preferences could affect how much we accept things we hear from reporters, eyewitnesses⁴, job applicants⁵, others whose accent differs from our own. Quelle domage
 

1 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

2 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

3 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

4 eyewitnesses   

目击者( eyewitness的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The examination of all the eyewitnesses took a week. 对所有证人的质询用了一周的时间。
• Several eyewitnesses testified that they saw the officers hit Miller in the face. 几位目击证人证明他们看见那几个警官打了米勒的脸。

5 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。