A new study published in the latest issue of Neurobiology of Aging showed that the older people get, the less apt they may be to recognize that they've made an error.

一项发表在最新一期《衰老神经生物学》上的新研究显示，年龄越大，人们可能越不容易认识到自己犯了错。

Researchers from the University of Iowa devised a simple, computerized test to gauge¹ how readily young adults and older adults realize when they've made a mistake.

爱荷华大学的研究人员设计了一个在计算机上进行的简单测试，以评估年轻人和老年人对自己犯了错的意识强弱。

The team recruited 38 younger adults (average age of 22) and 39 older adults (average age of 68) to take a series of tests that involved looking away from a circle appearing in a box on one side of a computer screen.

研究团队招募了38名年轻人（平均年龄22岁）和39名老年人（平均年龄68岁）进行一系列测试，其中包括不去看电脑屏幕一侧的方框里出现的圆圈。

After each failed instance, the participants were asked whether they had made an error.

每次失败后，受试者会被问及他们是否犯了错。

According to the study, younger participants were correct in acknowledging when they had erred² 75% of the time.

研究发现，75%的情况下年轻的参与者准确地意识到自己犯了错。

The older test-takers were correct 63% of the time when asked whether they had erred.

当被问及是否犯了错时，年龄较大的受试者的回答在63%的情况下是正确的。

That means in more than one-third of instances, the older participants didn't realize they had made a mistake. Also, older adults were more likely to be adamant³ that they did not make a mistake.

这意味着在超过1/3的情况下，年龄较大的参与者没有意识到自己犯了错误。而且，老年人更可能坚持认为自己没有犯错。