Talking to Yourself Makes You Smarter.

[Pikarya]

Talking to yourself is the preserve of mad men, right? Not according to a new study, which reveals that the seemingly irrational act of chatting to oneself actually improves cognitive function.

The research, carried out by Gary Lupyan and Daniel Swingley, was inspired the pair's experiences of seeing people audibly muttering to themselves when trying to find items on supermarket shelves. To test whether speaking to oneself was actually beneficial, Lupyan and Swingley devised a set of experiments.

In one experiment, volunteers were shown 20 pictures of everyday objects of the same kind and asked to search out a specific one. Initially participants were shown a piece of text telling them which object to find and left to complete the task in silence. Then, in subsequent tests involving different objects, the participants were asked to repeatedly say the name of the object they were searching for. Across the board, the objects were found more quickly when participants were speaking to themselves.

In a second experiment, the volunteers were made to perform a virtual shopping task. Here, they were presented with a wide range of objects typically found in a supermarket, and asked to locate a particular item. Again, they performed this task in silence and whilst talking to themselves. Again, when participants spoke to themselves they found the object more quickly—but only when they were familiar with the name. So, repeating the word "coke" helps you zero-in cola, but muttering "RIM PlayBook" if you've never heard of one—and who has?—won't help you find one any quicker. The results are published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

So, next time you lose your phone around the house, you know exactly what to do. Act nuts.

[Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology]

I thought this was interesting, as when I'm in the car for long hours (especially when I'm delirious or having insomnia) I seem to talk to myself in very short bursts.

Just wondering out of curiosity (be honest psychos) how many of you do this also occasionally? I understand most people do this by default when they are doing minimal tasks such as counting, doing formulas/etc.

[Dimmauk]

I've been telling myself for years that we are smart. Those bums on the street that talk to themselves are geniuses.

[Pikarya]

Those bums on the street that talk to themselves are geniuses.

Funny you say this. I was in Nashville a month or so ago at an expo and seen this homeless guy screaming pi out loud over and over. Or maybe he wanted some pie.

[hey]

Interesting.

I do not ever talk to myself.

[Sepukku]

Walmart must be full of Ph.D's then...

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I tend to have full on conversations with myself. Kinda freaky when I reply to my own questions.

[warc]

I talk to myself frequently. In the car, at the store, walking to class, doing homework... I'd say I have at least above average intelligence, but that's not really saying much is it.

[Dimmauk]

My self conversations depend on the stress level and caffeine intake.

[Correction]

I guess there really isn't much else of an audience for all the swearing I do on my daily commute to and from work.

[Rhyis.]

I'll mouth words from time to time if I'm deeply concentrating on something, but I'll never actually talk. Shits for loons.

[Omniyoji]

I do this all the time, even full conversations but I do it all in my head. Only rarely have I caught myself actually talking out loud. Last time I caught myself talking I actually referred to myself as "us"... was a bit freaked out after that >_>; lol

[Yuri-G]

I do it a lot. I live alone though. I even slip into the second person sometimes and tell myself things. Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure as long as I know it's me talking to me, I'm good.

[Greatguardian]

Talking to yourself is an important method for determining whether or not you sound like an idiot before other people hear you, in my experience.

[Titanss]

everyone fucking talks to themselves. when you answer yourself then you have problems

[Pikarya]

Last time I caught myself talking I actually referred to myself as "us"... was a bit freaked out after that >_>; lol

[ronin sparthos]

Cool, I've been doing this for years.

I even act out scenes in my head with different voices to great effect.

[Sup3rB4d]

I thought I was just crazy. Turns out I'm a genius. Cool

[Kuya]

I like it when science confirms that i am one of the few geniuses in the world. This reminds me about that time i wowed all of you when i declared i was bored in school. On account of me being a genius.

[Guitarman]

I don't talk to myself anymore. Kept getting too many stupid answers.

[Milkster]

I talk to myself daily and have full blown conversations with multiple versions of me. Knew I wasn't crazy.