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Poster C in Poster Session C: Wednesday, August 5, 9:30 – 11:15 am, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

The aging of creative problem solving revealed by the dynamics of latent cognitive-behavioral states

Zhang Xuhui¹, Yecheng Xue¹, Xin Zhang¹, Hang Zhang¹; ¹Peking University

Presenter: Zhang Xuhui

Aging declines are often attributed to isolated capacity losses or slower processing speed, but it remains unclear whether creative problem-solving (CPS) ageing differences reflect specific capacity impairments or impaired dynamic coordination of cognitive processes. Using a novel, ecologically valid paradigm adapted from Baba Is You, we tested 121 younger and 114 older adults. Despite comparable working memory, older adults showed significantly poorer CPS performance. We segmented variable-length behavioral logs (16–2150 actions), extracted spatiotemporal-interaction features, and applied Bayesian Hidden Markov Models (BHMM) to infer latent cognitive-behavioral states. Information-theoretic analyses revealed that older adults exhibited broader but more variable latent states, which partially mediated age-related performance decline. These findings suggest CPS depends on coordinating multiple cognitive processes rather than single capacities or speed. This framework provides new mechanistic insights into cognitive aging in complex problem solving.

Topic Area: Development, Individual Differences & Clinical Populations