Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) says Ten minutes of talking has a mental payoff. The study claims that discussing a social issue before a test is as helpful, on average, as a short, solitary mental exercise, of "reading comprehension exercise and a crossword puzzle." Tested was "knowledge of personal information and current events and that also includes a simple test of working memory."
I wonder what benefit educational games would see in their users' abilities due to a social chat function whereby users may chat with other users for ten minutes before their exercises.