Univ of Michigan: Mental function improves after certain kinds of socializing http://j.mp/cogbene ht @Silona. longlink: http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=8063. Key quote: "conversations in which participants were simply instructed to **get to know** another person resulted in boosts to their subsequent performance on an array of common cognitive tasks. But when participants engaged in conversations that had a **competitive** edge, their performance on cognitive tasks showed no improvement." (**emphasis** mine).