We are just studying this in chemistry now, electrochemistry.
It does help to put batteries in the refrigerator to increase their overall life time. It can increase their overall life time by up to 3 times, says our book at least. I don't think that means time for overall use though, just overall time until it is no longer usable. I'm not entirely sure though. Either way, I was shocked and am going to start putting my batteries in the refrigerator now
-silver