From a neuropsychological standpoint, an advantage to a written language such as the Korean mixed-script is that the brain is receiving information in varied formats. The information is processed and stored using a greater number of locations in the brain. You have the alphabet letters that are labels for the phonetics - the auditory sound of each word, and you have additional small pictograms to prompt the meaning of the word through visual recognition. Each mixed-script word gives the reader different ways to identify the meaning - from a previously memorized list of images, and from letters (as in English) to sound out how the word is pronounced.

In English, people use both word recognition and phonetics to read a word, but in the Korean mixed-script, the information comes in a way that's almost like having two separate types of written language, a phonetic word and a memorized image, sealed in each syllable block of the writing.

So, when information is processed and stored using a larger network of pathways into a greater number of locations, it's likely easier to hold on to the data in the event of distraction, stroke, dementia, or other interference to brain function. There is likely to be less memory loss. In the same way, research has noted that a person who can comprehend and communicate in more than one language, especially if additional languages are learned before the age of 7, is likely to suffer less damage to language memory and functions in the event of brain trauma or disease later in life.