这项任务旨在模拟生物课上学习动物种类的过程，它之所以用外星生物代替实际物种，是为了确保测试者不会凭借其原有的知识进行记忆。
Half of the volunteers were presented with the information in difficult-to-read fonts (12-pointComic Sans MS 75% greyscale and 12-point Bodoni MT 75% greyscale).
半数志愿者读的信息是"难看"的字体(12磅，Comic Sans MS字体，灰度75%和12磅Bodoni字体，灰度75%)。
The other half saw it in 16-point Arial pure-black font, which tests have shown is one of the easiest to read.
另外半数读的则是16磅大小、Arial纯黑字体(这种字体经测试表明，读起来最省力)。
Participants were given 90 seconds to memorise the information in the lists. They were then distracted with unrelated tasks for a quarter of an hour or so, before being asked questions about the aliens, such as "What is the diet of the Pangerish?"
所有测试者有90秒时间记住清单上的信息，然后进行大约15分钟不相关的测试以分散他们的注意力，最后才提问他们关于外星生物的问题，例如"潘格里氏主要吃什么?"
and "What colour eyes does the Norgletti have?" The upshot was that those reading the Arial font got the answers right 72.8% of the time, on average. Those forced to read the more difficult fonts answered correctly 86.5% of the time.
，"诺格莱蒂的眼睛是什么颜色?"等等。结果，读Arial字体的测试者平均有72.8%的正确率，而那些不得不费劲读"难看"字体的测试者正确率则达到86.5%。
The question was, would this result translate from the controlled circumstances of the laboratory to the unruly environment of the classroom?
问题来了，在实验室控制环境下得出的结果能否也适用于教室这种难以人为控制的环境呢?
It did. When the researchers asked teachers to use the technique in high-school lessons on chemistry, physics, English and history, they got similar results.
答案是肯定的。研究人员让教师们将这种方式应用到高中的化学、物理、英语和历史等课堂上，得到了类似的结果。
The lesson, then, is to make text books harder to read, not easier.
那么结论就是，应该把书本印得难读一点，不要让它看着那么舒服。
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