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Simply talking with your friends can boost your brainpower, according to an article from Yahoo.

The article says that everyday conversations with people help you solve common mental problems, but watch out for discussions that arise during competitive situations—because a war of words won’t help you at all.

Researchers at the University of Michigan had 192 undergrads engage in 10-minute conversations with each other, and determined that the conversations improved the students’ ability to perform cognitive tasks dealing with memory, self-monitoring, and suppressing distractions. When the conversations turned competitive, students showed no improvement in the tasks.