Mental Exercising Through Simple Socializing: Social Interaction Promotes General Cognitive Functioning

@article{Ybarra2008MentalET,
  title={Mental Exercising Through Simple Socializing: Social Interaction Promotes General Cognitive Functioning},
  author={Oscar Ybarra and Eugene Burnstein and Piotr Winkielman and Matthew C. Keller and Melvin Manis and Emily Chan and Joel Rodriguez},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2008},
  volume={34},
  pages={248 - 259}
}
Social interaction is a central feature of people's life and engages a variety of cognitive resources. Thus, social interaction should facilitate general cognitive functioning. Previous studies suggest such a link, but they used special populations (e.g., elderly with cognitive impairment), measured social interaction indirectly (e.g., via marital status), and only assessed effects of extended interaction in correlational designs. Here the relation between mental functioning and direct… 
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