Study: ‘lol' takes longer to process
Doug Gonzalez / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Doug Gonzalez / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Texting "ttyl" instead of "talk to you later" may not save as much time as one might expect, according to a study conducted by Natalie Berger '09. As part of Berger's psychology honors thesis, Berger and Dartmouth education professor Donna Coch found that the brain is slower at processing text messaging language than standard written English. The study identified similarities and differences between the way the brain processes words in text message phrases and conventional written English. Although participants in the study processed text messages in nearly the same way as they would process any written language, an extra step was required for subjects' brains to process texting language. "The participants in the study were processing semantics of text messages in a way similar to their normal process," Coch said.
