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Yakking Can Improve Your Memory
Sounds farfetched, but a University of Michigan study suggests that the more time you spend talking to other people - on the phone or face to face - the sharper your memory and your mind. Researchers first looked at data on a nationwide sampling of 3,610 people between the ages of 24 and 96. After controlling for age, education, gender, marital status and income as well as other factors including physical health and depression, the Michigan team found that regardless of age, the more frequent their social contacts, the sharper the participants’ minds. In another study, the researchers looked at 76 college students ages 18 to 21, each of whom was assigned to one of three groups: one group discussed a social issue for 10 minutes, another group completed three intellectual activities and a third group watched a ”Seinfeld” clip. Then all the students took a test to see how their activities affected memory and mental performance. Those in the discussion group did as well as those in the intellectual activities group. What does this mean? Possibly that you can sharpen your mind doing puzzles, or you can pick up the phone for a 10-minute chat with a friend. The payoff might be the same. The study will be published in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Dr. Andrew Weil, December '07