Structural enrichment slows network processing: An enrichment account of cognitive aging

There are two contrasting views of aging. One sees aging as a process of cognitive decline, a natural consequence of biological aging. The other sees aging as a process of lifelong learning. Of these two views, one is based on an underlying process of atrophy, about which we understand little. The other is based on enrichment. Enrichment is nothing more than learning, and we understand learning processes well. Moreover, there is clear evidence for it: older adults show conspicuous improvements in vocabulary across the lifespan as well as in many other knowledge-related domains. But can enrichment explain recent findings of a fracturing of the semantic lexicon in late life? Or an age-related reduction in similarity ratings? In this talk, I will investigate how understanding the nature of structural changes in knowledge induced by learning across the lifespan can explain these and other changes. In addition, I will show how this account provides important insights into how we understand and measure structure and process in cognitive representations.