Is it true that talking to yourself makes you smarter?

Is it true that talking to yourself makes you smarter? | Healthbiztips

 
Is it true that talking to yourself makes you smarter? | Healthbiztips

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan | psychology blog

I've found psychology blogs online pointing out that talking to yourself makes you smarter. That's great because I know there's a lot of people who want to boost their brain power, right?

I thought to myself how cool this is but I got disappointed when I got to the real answer.

According to the research conducted by G. Lupyan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a self-directed speech, not a conversational self talk, can increase your focus.

So, my nonsensical self-speeches do not count at all. I should have known better. Striking a conversation with yourself (I mean, a real talk) still looks strange so you won't want other people to see that part of you. You know, just in case people speculate about your social life.

To make it short, you're only boosting your brain power when giving yourself instruction regarding something you're currently engaged with or when you're discussing with yourself things you've learned.

Say, you're trying to find a familiar object in a grocery store, then repeating the name of that object verbally increases your attention into finally finding that thing.

Research revealed that the strategy of repeating a familiar object's name will increase your speed of finding that object in a grocery store by up to 50 to 100 milliseconds.

Ironically, doing the same strategy to find an foreign object proves to be a handicap. Turns out chanting an unfamiliar object's name doesn't make it any more recognizable in a sea of stuffs.


In conclusion, you get smarter by increasing your focus on the task at hand by speaking out about the current task your have to accomplish and reciting things you've learned to improve your memory about that subject.