Computational explorations of the influence of structured knowledge on age-related cognitive decline
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 30, 2026

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach
Published on: February 14, 2014
David E Mireles1, Neil Charness
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306-1270, USA. mireles@mitre.org
Abstract:
Experience in a domain can sometimes offset cognitive declines that occur with aging. Using a series of neural network simulations of learning chess opening positions, the authors investigated how structured knowledge in a distributed representation may influence age-related declines. Aging manipulations implemented as modulations of neural noise showed increased knowledge as being protective of performance on a chess memory span task, whereas changes in neural plasticity and neural loss lead to main effects without interactions and steeper declines for the initially more able. The models could also simulate the increase in variability in older groups.
More Related Videos
09:01A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance
Published on: May 7, 2014
04:30An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing
Published on: October 25, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition
Information Processing Approach
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process information is...
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
This field emerged in the mid-20th century, following a period dominated by behaviorism, which...
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood
Schemata: Building Blocks of Knowledge
Schemata...