clipped from www.sciencedaily.com Ten Minutes Of Talking Improves Memory And Test Performance ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2007) — Spending just 10 minutes talking to another person can help improve your memory and your performance on tests, according to a University of Michigan study to be published in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. "In our study, socializing was just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," said Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and a lead author of the study with ISR psychologist Eugene Burnstein and psychologist Piotr Winkielman from the University of California, San Diego. In the article, Ybarra, Burnstein and colleagues report on findings from two types of studies they conducted on the relationship between social interactions and mental functioning. the findings suggest that visiting with a friend or neighbor may be just as helpful in staying sharp

good excuse to keep on talking