Education Report - More School May Mean Higher IQ Scores
教育报道 - 上学越多可能意味着智商越高
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
A study in Norway has found that students who stayed in school longer than others their same age scored higher on intelligence tests.
挪威的一项研究发现，同龄人中，上学时间更长的学生智力测验得分更高。
In the middle of the nineteen fifties, the government began requiring students to attend school until the age of sixteen instead of fourteen. Communities had almost twenty years to make the change. So some students went to school for seven years while others went for at least nine years.
在上世纪90年代中期，挪威政府开始要求学生16岁前必须上学，此前要求是14岁。公众有近20年时间就此做出改变。所以有些学生上了7年学，而另一些学生上了至少9年学。
This difference gave researchers the chance to see if the additional schooling had any effect on intellectual development.
这种差异使研究人员有机会看到新增的学校教育对智力发展是否有任何影响。
All young men in Norway must take a test of their cognitive ability at age nineteen in preparation for required military service. This is commonly called an IQ, or intelligence quotient, test.
挪威所有青年男子在19岁准备服兵役时必须参加一项认知能力测试。也就是通常所说的智商测试。
The researchers compared the test results of one hundred seven thousand young men to their years of school. Taryn Ann Galloway is a researcher at the University of Oslo.
研究人员把10.7万青年男子的测试结果和他们的上学时间做了一个比较。泰伦·安·加洛韦（Taryn Ann Galloway）是奥斯陆大学一名研究人员。
TARYN ANN GALLOWAY: "The young men who were basically forced to stay in school for two years longer actually did have higher IQs. So, based on that, we were able to say that increasing compulsory schooling did actually have an effect on their cognitive abilities as measured at nineteen years of age."
加洛韦：“被迫在学校多呆了两年的青年男子确实智商更高。所以在此基础上，我们可以说，以19岁时的认知能力来衡量，增加义务教育确实对此有影响。”
An average IQ is one hundred. Most people score between eighty-five and one hundred fifteen.
平均智商为100。多数人得分在85到115之间。
Ms. Galloway says students who attended school for nine years scored seven points higher than those who attended for seven years. Those who went for eight years scored about four points higher.
加洛韦女士说，与上了7年学的学生相比，上了9年学的学生的智商高出7个点，上了8年学的学生的智商高出大约4个点。
TARYN ANN GALLOWAY: "So that's still quite large."
加洛韦：“所以这个差别还是相当大的。”
Experts have debated for years about the extent to which people are born with intelligence or develop it later. This is the nature versus nurture argument -- the influence of biology compared to the environment in which people are raised and educated. This study seems to support the nurture side.
专家们数年来一直在争论智商先天具备或后天发展的程度。这是自然（即先天）与培养（即后天）之争，也就是生物学方面的影响与人的成长、教育环境两者的比较。
TARYN ANN GALLOWAY: "I think it’s because you do learn general thinking skills at school and you are able to practice them, and you have lots of opportunity to practice them. So this is a two year, you know, extension of compulsory schooling for two years, so they were able to simply improve their skills."
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
这一研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院学报》上。
Another recent study, in the journal Nature, found that IQ scores can rise or fall during the teenage years. In two thousand four, researchers from University College London tested thirty-three young people ages twelve to sixteen. They repeated the tests four years later. They found increases or decreases of as much as twenty points.
《自然》杂志上另一项最近的研究发现，十来岁时的智商得分可能会上升或下降。2004年，伦敦大学学院的研究人员对33名年龄在12到16岁的青年进行了测试，四年后又对他们再次进行了测试。他们发现，智商得分上升或下降多达20个点。
Both times, they also took structural brain scans using MRI, magnetic resonance imaging. The study found that as IQ scores increased, so did the density of gray matter in some areas of the students' brains.
两次测试他们还使用了磁共振成像进行了脑部结构扫描。该研究发现，当智商提高时，学生脑部某些区域的灰质密度也会提高。
Professor Cathy Price says the differences in performance could be the result of some teens being early or late developers. But she says it is equally possible that education played a part. She sees a lesson for educators: "We have to be careful not to write off poorer performers at an early stage when in fact their IQ may improve significantly given a few more years."
凯茜·普莱斯说，测试的差异可能是某些青年早期或后期发展的结果。但她说，教育同样也可能发挥了作用。她得出一个教育工作者的教训：“我们在早期阶段必须谨慎，不要写测试者较差，再过几年实际上他们的智商可能会显著提高。”
And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. I’m Christopher Cruise.
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Contributing: Jessica Berman |