Ten minutes of conversationare enough forimprove our memory and obtain better results in intelligence tests, according to a study by the University of Michigan that will be published inPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Its author, Oscar Ybarra, interviewed 3,610 people between the ages of 24 and 96 to find out their level of social interaction. In essence, it asked them how often they talked on the phone with friends, neighbors and relatives, as well as how often they met with them. He then subjected them to a mini-intelligence test. The results were eloquent: regardless of age,the more an individual interacts socially, the greater the development of their cognitive functions.
In a second experiment, Ybarra analyzed the behavior of 76 students divided into three groups. For 10 minutes, one of the groups had an intense conversation about a topic of social interest, another developed a crossword puzzle and various exercises, and the third (the control group) spent the same time in front of a television screen watching the American comedy Seinfeld . Then they all completed two intelligence tests that measured theirmental processing speedand the call“work memory”(short term). The results left no room for doubt: a conversation had the same positive effect on the brain as the “intellectual activities” carried out by the second group.
According to the researcher, the human mind has evolved to deal with social problems, so it is not surprising that exercising this aspect has benefits over the entire brain. “Visit a friend“, concludes Ybarra,” may beso useful to keep us agilementallyWhatmake adaily crossword“.
