A team of US psychologists have found that talking to another person for 10 minutes a day improves memory.

    Researchers discovered that "socializing was just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," lead author Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a statement.

    In one investigation, they analyzed data on 3,610 people, ages 24 to 96.

    They found that the higher their level of social interaction, the better their cognitive functioning. Social interaction included getting together or having phone chats with relatives, friends and neighbors.

    In another experiment, the researchers conducted lab tests on 76 college students, ages 18 to 21, to assess how social interactions and intellectual exercises affected the results of memory and mental performance tests.

    The students were divided into three groups: The social interaction group had a discussion of a social issue for 10 minutes before taking the tests; the intellectual activities group completed three tasks （including a reading comprehension exercise and a crossword puzzle） before the tests; and a control group watched a 10-minute clip of the Seinfeld television show.

    "We found that short-term social interaction lasting for just 10 minutes boosted participants' intellectual performance as much as engaging in so-called 'intellectual' activities for the same amount of time," Ybarra said.

    The study was expected to be published in the February 2008 issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

    美國心理學家近日發現，每天與人交談十分鐘能夠提高記憶力。

    該研究報告的的主要撰寫者、密歇根大學社會研究所的心理學家奧絲卡?依芭拉在報告中闡述了這一研究發現。她說：“社會交往與傳統的思維訓練方式對于提高記憶力和智力表現具有同樣效果。”

    研究人員調查分析了3610名年齡在24歲至96歲之間的研究對象的相關數據。

    他們發現，社會交往越多的人認知表現越好。聚會、與親戚、朋友或鄰居進行電話交談都屬于社會交往范疇。

    研究人員另外對76名年齡在18歲至21歲間的大學生進行了一項實驗室測試，以了解社會交往與智力訓練是如何影響他們的記憶效果及智力測試結果的。
    
    研究人員將這些學生分為三組。在測試開始前，“社會交往組”就某一社會問題進行了十分鐘的討論：“智力訓練組”完成了三個任務（其中包括一個閱讀理解和一個拼字謎）；而對照組則觀看了一個十分鐘的《宋飛傳》剪輯。

    依芭拉說：“我們發現，僅十分鐘的短期社會交往就能提高研究對象的智力表現，其效果與同等時間的”智力“訓練完全相同。”

    該研究結果將在明年二月的《個性與社會心理報告》中發表。