ArticleScientific reports2022
Structural differences in the semantic networks of younger and older adults.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Free recall of semantically related words reveals similarity structure.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Electrophysiological evidence for age-related changes in event knowledge use during language comprehension.Psychology and aging · 2026Article
- Aging Reduces the Efficiency of Parafoveal Lexical Activation During Chinese Sentence Reading.Journal of eye movement research · 2026Article
- Semantic memory network resilience in aging: The role of abstract and semantically diverse words.Cognition · 2026Article
- Reduced age differences in semantic memory networks: Evidence from semantically diverse free associations.Neuropsychologia · 2026Article
- Phonological networks remain intact in multiple sclerosis.Neuropsychology · 2026Article
- Text mining and machine learning reveal global determinants of food insecurity.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Diffindo! Precise language comprehension in older adulthood revealed by event-related brain potential studies of domain knowledge.Cognition · 2025Article
- How retrieval processes change with age: Exploring age differences in semantic network and retrieval dynamics.Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale · 2025Article
- Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on recognition and testimony memory: differential effects in young and older adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Measuring individual semantic networks: A simulation study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Mapping Mental Representations With Free Associations: A Tutorial Using the R Package associatoR.Journal of cognition · 2025Article
- Lexical retrieval in fluent and nonfluent aphasia: a network analysis of verbal fluency data.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Predicting high variability in imageability ratings across age groups and its influence on visual word recognition.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Asynchronous behavioral and neurophysiological changes in word production in the adult lifespan.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Navigating the Mental Lexicon: Network Structures, Lexical Search and Lexical Retrieval.Journal of psycholinguistic research · 2024Article
- Multiple sclerosis is associated with differences in semantic memory structure.Neuropsychology · 2024Article
- Evidence for optimal semantic search throughout adulthood.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Age differences in semantic network structure: Acquiring knowledge shapes semantic memory.Psychology and aging · 2023Article
- Evaluating the effects of episodic and semantic memory induction procedures on divergent thinking in younger and older adults.PloS one · 2023Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
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.
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