ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2021
From exploration to exploitation: a shifting mental mode in late life development.
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spontaneous Goal-Related Cognition Predicts Well-Being and Real-World Goal Attainment Across Adulthood in a Think-Aloud Study.Research square · 2026Article
- Structure-function dynamics in healthy cognitive aging: a graph signal processing approach.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- The neural basis of prosocial effort-based decision making in older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Freely foraging macaques value information in ambiguous terrains.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- MEG state dynamics of sentence generation: evidence for a compensatory segmentation mechanism in healthy aging.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2026Article
- Prefrontal Default Mode Network Interactions with Posterior Hippocampus during Exploration.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Age differences in spatial navigation stem from a preference for familiar routes rather than impaired landmark-dependent strategies.Psychology and aging · 2025Article
- Age-Related Changes in Curiosity: The Influence of Locus Coeruleus on Information-Seeking Behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Individual differences in sequential decision-making.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Spatial navigation strategy in older adults: Preference or ability?Psychology and aging · 2025Article
- Development of the Flexibility in Daily Life scale to measure multidimensional cognitive and behavioural flexibility in health and disease.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Aging Impacts Basic Auditory and Timing Processes.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Playful brains: a possible neurobiological pathway to cognitive health in aging.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Lifespan oscillatory dynamics in lexical production: A population-based MEG resting-state analysis.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- A causal role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in random exploration.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Developing feedback visualizations to support older adults' medication adherence.Human factors in healthcare · 2024Article
- Locus coeruleus integrity is related to an exploitation-based decision-making bias in older adulthood.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Modeling the neurocognitive dynamics of language across the lifespan.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- How does apathy impact exploration-exploitation decision-making in older patients with neurocognitive disorders?npj aging · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Changes in cognition, affect, and brain function combine to promote a shift in the nature of mentation in older adulthood, favoring exploitation of prior knowledge over exploratory search as the starting point for thought and action. Age-related exploitation biases result from the accumulation of prior knowledge, reduced cognitive control, and a shift toward affective goals. These are accompanied by changes in cortical networks, as well as attention and reward circuits. By incorporating these factors into a unified account, the exploration-to-exploitation shift offers an integrative model of cognitive, affective, and brain aging. Here, we review evidence for this model, identify determinants and consequences, and survey the challenges and opportunities posed by an exploitation-biased mental mode in later life.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.