Can cute cats help you learn a language?

 

Last year we reported on research from Japan that found that people who looked at cute animal photos performed better on cognitive tasks. Now, one company is applying that research to make it easier to learn a language.

Memrise, an online learning company, did its own analysis to see which mnemonic devices worked best among its users. As you might expect, "The pattern began to emerge that pictures of cats always featured disproportionately among the most effective," Ben Whately, chief operating officer at Memrise, told BBC.

That led Memrise to develop a spinoff project, CatAcademy, an app that uses cute, funny cat photos to help users learn Spanish -- think of a cross between Rosetta Stone and LoLCats. CatAcademy connects a cat photo with key words and phrases to aid language memorization. The app bases its setup on five principles:

-For one, visualization helps you store vivid memories.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com