Forget tutors—look to Darrell Hammond, Tina Fey and the rest of the Saturday Night Live gang to help you with your homework.
Researchers at Wisconsin's Marquette University found that watching comedy clips actually improves memory. Clinical psychologists Mark Powless and Kristy Nielson study "memory modulation," the process by which we convert information from short-term to long-term memory. Previous studies have shown that memory can be boosted by disturbing stimuli like videos of surgery. Powless and Nielsen wondered whether positive emotions could also improve recall.
The researchers read 30 words to two groups of undergrads. Thirty minutes later, one group watched a funny clip from SNL (Powless and Nielson watched a lot of TV before they found the clip they wanted: "Jingleheimer Junction," a mock children's television show that relied on clever profanity for its punch). A week later, the skit-watching group remembered between 15 and 20 of the words, while the other group remembered only five to 10.
