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Research pathways that have linked environment, representation, and cognitive performance across the lifespan. Pathway (a) represents research studying the association between the environment and cognitive performance without explicit consideration of the underlying mental representations. Pathway (b) represents research on the association between environmental exposure and mental representations. Pathway (c) represents research on the association between mental representations and cognitive performance.
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People undergo many idiosyncratic experiences throughout their lives that may contribute to individual differences in the size and structure of their knowledge representations. Ultimately, these can have important implications for individuals' cognitive performance. We review evidence that suggests a relationship between individual experiences, the...
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... this section, we assess the current state of the psychological literature that has investigated the links between environmental exposure, the size and structure of semantic representations, and cognitive performance across the life span (see Figure 1). Our goal is both to provide a brief overview of the current literature and to highlight the main gaps that must be filled to answer the question above concerning the role of individual experience in cognitive representations and performance. ...
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... are several lines of research supporting a close link between cumulative experience and cognitive performance (see Figure 1, path a: Environment-Performance), of which three stand out. First, research that summarizes the association between print exposure and reading performance in children and young adults underlines the tremendous impact of experience on linguistic proficiency. ...
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... if not all, psychologists will find it trivial to state that the effects of cumulative experience are somehow mediated by its effects on mental representations and processes ( Figure 1, path b, Environment-Representation). Despite the truism and the increasing consensus that the lexical-semantic space continues to be shaped by personal linguistic experience throughout the life span (Rodd, 2020), only recently have researchers started to probe more deeply into the effects of cumulative experience on the structure of knowledge representations. ...
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... research is accumulating that establishes direct links between the structure of semantic representations and cognitive performance (Figure 1, path c, RepresentationPerformance). For example, various studies on memory recall show impaired performance when words represented as nodes within a semantic network have lower clustering (Nel- son et al., 1993). ...
Citations
... Despite age-related decline in episodic memory, semantic memory across aging shows little variation across the lifespan, which can be explained by the minimal deterioration across the lifespan of general knowledge retrieval (Cattell, 1943;Cattell & Horn, 1978;Horn, 1970). This evidence converges from a variety of semantic memory tasks, including semantic priming (Cerella & Fozard, 1984;Wulff et al., 2021), classification speed (Mueller et al., 1980), and category access (Balota & Duchek, 1988). The persistence of semantic memory stores and general knowledge throughout life is an advantage that older adults have over younger adults when performing cognitive tasks that rely on conceptual information (Nyberg et al., 2003), highlighting a promising point of cognitive improvement in older adults through interventions. ...
Creative divergent thinking involves the generation of unique ideas by pulling from semantic memory stores and exercising cognitive flexibility to shape these memories into something new. Although cognitive abilities decline with age, semantic memory tends to remain intact. This study aims to utilize that memory to investigate the effectiveness of a brief cognitive training to improve creative divergent thinking. Older adults were trained using a semantic retrieval strategy to improve creativity in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and the Divergent Association Task (DAT). Participants were tested on the AUT and DAT across three time points: before the strategy was introduced (T0 and T1) and afterward (T2). Results showed that the strategy enhances idea novelty in the AUT; additionally , participants that initially scored lowest on the AUT showed the greatest increase in AUT performance. This finding suggests that older adults can use a semantic retrieval strategy to enhance creative divergent thinking. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Some insight into this matter has been provided by a prior study that observed a connection between semantic memory network connectivity and episodic memory performance. This study demonstrated that words possessing higher degrees of connectivity in a semantic network are more likely to be successfully retrieved in episodic memory tasks (Wulff et al., 2021), suggesting substantial implications of semantic memory network characteristics for memory performance. ...
... While the literature extensively documents age differences in the size of semantic memory, our study aimed to investigate whether younger and older groups differ in their semantic structure. Previous research has found that a more connected semantic memory network structure enhances word retrieval in episodic memory tasks (Wulff et al., 2021), indicating the significant implications of semantic memory network characteristics on individuals' memory performance. ...
... While a few studies have investigated age differences in the structure of semantic memory networks , the interpretation of these global network measures leads us to the conclusion that, consistent with previous findings (Cosgrove et al., 2021(Cosgrove et al., , 2023Wulff et al., 2016), older adults demonstrate a less small-world-like and less flexible network structure. Conversely, a more connected and flexible network has been associated with higher episodic memory performance (Wulff et al., 2021). These findings suggest that age differences in the structure of semantic networks may account for the reduced performance in episodic memory observed in older adults. ...
Cette étude a examiné l’impact de l’âge sur les réseaux de mémoire sémantique et la dynamique de récupération à l’aide d’un paradigme de rappel libre d’une liste unique, impliquant 318 participants. Le groupe le plus jeune, composé de 175 participants âgés de 25 à 55 ans (M = 46,68 ans; écart-type = 10,69), et le groupe le plus âgé, composé de 143 participants âgés de 61 à 88 ans (M = 68,71 ans; écart-type = 6,09), ont effectué un test de rappel de mots afin d’évaluer les performances en matière de rappel différé. Les réseaux de mémoire sémantique ont été construits à partir des données de rappel en analysant la cooccurrence et la séquence des mots rappelés. Nous avons observé des différences significatives dans la structure des réseaux, le groupe le plus âgé affichant une longueur moyenne du plus court chemin et des valeurs de modularité plus élevées, témoignant de réseaux moins intégrés, tandis que le groupe le plus jeune présentait un coefficient de regroupement plus élevé, suggérant un réseau plus interconnecté. En termes de dynamique de récupération, les deux groupes ont montré un effet de contiguïté temporelle avec une asymétrie vers l’avant. Toutefois, cet effet était moins prononcé chez les adultes plus âgés. L’étude a également permis d’identifier les participants qui s’écartaient des courbes dynamiques moyennes : un sous-groupe s’appuyait sur des mécanismes non temporels, et l’autre utilisait une direction vers l’arrière dans la recherche de la mémoire. Les participants utilisant des associations temporelles vers l’avant ont affiché les meilleures performances de rappel. Dans l’ensemble, nos résultats suggèrent que la baisse des performances de rappel libre chez les personnes âgées peut être liée à une diminution de la capacité à réintégrer le contexte temporel pour la récupération et à des différences distinctes dans la structure de leur réseau de mémoire sémantique. Plus précisément, les adultes plus âgés semblent présenter des réseaux moins flexibles, avec une structure de type petit monde.
... Despite age-related decline in episodic memory, semantic memory across aging shows little variation across the lifespan, which can be explained by the minimal deterioration across the lifespan of general knowledge retrieval (Cattell, 1943;Cattell & Horn, 1978;Horn, 1970). This evidence converges from a variety of semantic memory tasks, including semantic priming (Cerella & Fozard, 1984;Wulff et al., 2021), classification speed (Mueller et al., 1980), and category access (Balota & Duchek, 1988). The persistence of semantic memory stores and general knowledge throughout life is an advantage that older adults have over younger adults when performing cognitive tasks that rely on conceptual information (Nyberg et al., 2003), highlighting a promising point of cognitive improvement in older adults through interventions. ...
Creative divergent thinking involves the generation of unique ideas by pulling from semantic memory stores and exercising cognitive flexibility to shape these memories into something new. Although cognitive abilities such as episodic memory decline with age, semantic memory tends to remain intact. The current study aims to take advantage of older adults’ strength in semantic memory to investigate the effectiveness of a brief cognitive training to improve creative divergent thinking. Specifically, older adults were trained using a semantic retrieval strategy known as the disassembly strategy in order to improve creativity in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT), which involves generating original uses for objects. We also investigated whether this strategy would transfer to other creativity tasks, specifically, the Divergent Association Task (DAT). Participants were tested on the AUT and DAT across three time points in a single session: before the disassembly strategy was introduced (T0 and T1) and afterwards (T2). Results showed that the disassembly strategy enhances idea novelty in the AUT, though this enhancement did not transfer to DAT performance. Additionally, participants that initially scored lowest on the AUT at T0 showed the greatest increase in AUT performance at T2. This finding provides evidence that older adults can effectively use a semantic retrieval strategy to engage and enhance elements of creative divergent thinking.
... For instance, there are citizen science projects that collect free associations (i.e., what are the first three words that come to mind for the concept "dog"?) through an online word association game-these free associations are commonly analyzed as semantic networks Dubossarsky et al., 2017). Others have adopted a snowballing approach to collect free associations to estimate the semantic network structure of individuals (Morais et al., 2013;Wulff et al., 2021). Others have used the verbal fluency or semantic fluency task (i.e., name as many members of the "animal" category) to estimate semantic network structures (Borodkin et al., 2016;Kenett et al., 2013). ...
Cognitive scientists have a long-standing interest in quantifying the structure of semantic memory. Here, we investigate whether a commonly used paradigm to study the structure of semantic memory, the semantic fluency task, as well as computational methods from network science could be leveraged to explore the underlying knowledge structures of academic disciplines such as psychology or biology. To compare the knowledge representations of individuals with relatively different levels of expertise in academic subjects, undergraduate students (i.e., experts) and preuniversity high school students (i.e., novices) completed a semantic fluency task with cue words corresponding to general semantic categories (i.e., animals, fruits) and specific academic domains (e.g., psychology, biology). Network analyses of their fluency networks found that both domain-general and domain-specific semantic networks of undergraduates were more efficiently connected and less modular than the semantic networks of high school students. Our results provide an initial proof-of-concept that the semantic fluency task could be used by educators and cognitive scientists to study the representation of more specific domains of knowledge, potentially providing new ways of quantifying the nature of expert cognitive representations.
... Similarly, Wulff, Hills, and Mata, (2018) examined the semantic networks of younger and older adults and found that the networks of older adults showed smaller average degree and longer path lengths than younger adults. Researchers suggest that the age-related differences in semantic network structure are a consequence of having more lived experiences (Siew et al., 2019;Wulff, Hills, & Mata, 2018;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021). ...
... Considerable research has demonstrated that environmental factors, including cumulative environmental exposure and different environments, contribute to age differences in human cognition (Siew et al., 2019;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021;Wulff, De Deyne, Jones, & Mata, 2019). Individuals continue to learn as they get older. ...
... Individuals continue to learn as they get older. Older people are assumed to have acquired more knowledge (e.g., broader vocabulary) than younger people, and subsequently leads to the concepts become more distant and further apart from each other in their mental representation (Cosgrove et al., 2021;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021). This may account for the pattern observed in older adults' semantic network and the similar segregated effect in face Fig. 3. 2D visualization of the age generation-based face preference networks. ...
How does aging affect facial attractiveness? We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less pronounced in judgments made by older than younger and middle-aged perceivers, and more pronounced by men (especially for female faces) than women. Attractive older faces were perceived as elegant more than beautiful or gorgeous. Furthermore, network analyses revealed that older faces were more similar in attractiveness and were segregated from younger faces. These results indicate that perceivers tend to process older faces categorically when making attractiveness judgments. Attractiveness is not a monolithic construct. It varies by age, sex, and the dimensions of attractiveness being judged.
... Similarly, Wulff, Hills, and Mata, (2018) examined the semantic networks of younger and older adults and found that the networks of older adults showed smaller average degree and longer path lengths than younger adults. Researchers suggest that the age-related differences in semantic network structure are a consequence of having more lived experiences (Siew et al., 2019;Wulff, Hills, & Mata, 2018;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021). ...
... Considerable research has demonstrated that environmental factors, including cumulative environmental exposure and different environments, contribute to age differences in human cognition (Siew et al., 2019;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021;Wulff, De Deyne, Jones, & Mata, 2019). Individuals continue to learn as they get older. ...
... Individuals continue to learn as they get older. Older people are assumed to have acquired more knowledge (e.g., broader vocabulary) than younger people, and subsequently leads to the concepts become more distant and further apart from each other in their mental representation (Cosgrove et al., 2021;Wulff, De Deyne, Aeschbach, & Mata, 2021). This may account for the pattern observed in older adults' semantic network and the similar segregated effect in face Fig. 3. 2D visualization of the age generation-based face preference networks. ...
How does aging affect facial attractiveness? We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less pronounced in judgments made by older than younger and middle-aged perceivers, and more pronounced by men (especially for female faces) than women. Attractive older faces were perceived as elegant more than beautiful or gorgeous. Furthermore, network analyses revealed that older faces were more similar in attractiveness and were segregated from younger faces. These results indicate that perceivers tend to process older faces categorically when making attractiveness judgments. Attractiveness is not a monolithic construct. It varies by age, sex, and the dimensions of attractiveness being judged.
... Thus, a similar analysis as conducted in our study at the individual level would be helpful. While currently still a challenge, a few methods have been proposed to estimate individual-based semantic networks (Morais et al., 2013;Zemla et al., 2016;Benedek et al., 2017;He et al., 2020;Wulff et al., 2021). Thus, follow up research is needed to estimate individual-based semantic networks related to the concepts of beauty and wellness, to replicate and extend our current findings. ...
Beauty and wellness are terms used often in common parlance, however their meaning and relation to each other is unclear. To probe their meaning, we applied network science methods to estimate and compare the semantic networks associated with beauty and wellness in different age generation cohorts (Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers) and in women and men. These mappings were achieved by estimating group-based semantic networks from free association responses to a list of 47 words, either related to Beauty, Wellness, or Beauty + Wellness. Beauty was consistently related to Elegance, Feminine, Gorgeous, Lovely, Sexy, and Stylish. Wellness was consistently related Aerobics, Fitness, Health, Holistic, Lifestyle, Medical, Nutrition, and Thrive. In addition, older cohorts had semantic networks that were less connected and more segregated from each other. Finally, we found that women compared to men had more segregated and organized concepts of Beauty and Wellness. In contemporary societies that are pre-occupied by the pursuit of beauty and a healthy lifestyle, our findings shed novel light on how people think about beauty and wellness and how they are related across different age generations and by sex.
... We present data of a proof-of-concept study of MySWOW involving four younger and four older individuals. For additional details of the study rationale, see Wulff et al. (2021, February 15). ...
We report data from a proof-of-concept study involving the concurrent assessment of large-scale individual semantic networks and cognitive performance. The data include 10,800 free associations-collected using a dedicated web-based platform over the course of 2-4 weeks-and responses to several cognitive tasks, including verbal fluency, episodic memory, associative recall tasks, from four younger and four older native German speakers. The data are unique in scope and composition and shed light on individual and age-related differences in mental representations and their role in cognitive performance across the lifespan.
Cognitive science invokes semantic networks to explain diverse phenomena, from memory retrieval to creativity. Research in these areas often assumes a single underlying semantic network that is shared across individuals. Yet, recent evidence suggests that content, size, and connectivity of semantic networks are experience-dependent, implying sizable individual and age-related differences. Here, we investigate individual and age differences in the semantic networks of younger and older adults by deriving semantic networks from both fluency and similarity rating tasks. Crucially, we use a megastudy approach to obtain thousands of similarity ratings per individual to allow us to capture the characteristics of individual semantic networks. We find that older adults possess lexical networks with smaller average degree and longer path lengths relative to those of younger adults, with older adults showing less interindividual agreement and thus more unique lexical representations relative to younger adults. Furthermore, this approach shows that individual and age differences are not evenly distributed but, rather, are related to weakly connected, peripheral parts of the networks. All in all, these results reveal the interindividual differences in both the content and the structure of semantic networks that may accumulate across the life span as a function of idiosyncratic experiences.
