Maryellen MacDonald is Professor Emerit in the Department of Psychology and Program in Language Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She studies language comprehension, language production, and verbal working memory. Her approach emphasizes the role of implicit learning in developing skill in all of these domains, where practice reading and talking undergird memory capacity and skill in language comprehension and production. Her book, More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World, reveals the cognitive benefits of talking that go beyond communication. She’s also written about the decline of talking in young people and the consequences for their wellbeing.