# Integrated Cognitive and Decision Models with Applications to Aging and Numeracy

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $659,788

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Our primary methodological/theoretical goal is to develop models that integrate models of how information is
represented with models of how decisions are made. The domain of application will be numeracy: how numeracy
is represented in the cognitive system and how it is used in making decisions. The specific goals for numeracy
are to understand the basic processes involved in numeracy skills and to produce measures with which to
understand the relationships between basic processes and higher-level skills. We will examine statistical
properties of the integrated models and work with the authors of publicly available diffusion-model fitting
packages to make the integrated models widely available.
 The decision model we will use is the well-established diffusion decision model, which provides a unified
explanation of the full range of data for simple two-choice tasks of the kinds we will use, including the distributions
of response times for correct and incorrect responses, how the distributions and accuracy change with
manipulations of independent variables, and how they change with differences among individuals and groups of
individuals. The representation models we will test assume distributed representations over numerosity and they
will produce the measures of numeracy that drive decision processes. A successful representation model will be
one for which the measures accurately predict, when translated through the diffusion model, response time and
accuracy data.
 The proposed research will examine low-level skills, as measured by applying the models to simple numeracy
discrimination and memory tasks. Relations will then be examined between these skills, working memory, and
speed-of-processing and also between the skills and performance on standardized tests of higher-level math
abilities, financial numeracy abilities, and health numeracy abilities. All of these tasks and measures will be
tested with college-age adults, adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment, adults with early and moderate Alzheimer's
disease, and cognitively unimpaired age-matched adults. Questions will include how numeracy abilities decline
with normal aging and how they are impacted by cognitive impairment. It may be that impairments in numeracy
abilities precede memory impairments and if so, lead to earlier treatments and earlier interventions in health and
financial decision making.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10177825
- **Project number:** 5R01AG041176-09
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** GAIL A MCKOON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $659,788
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-30 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10177825

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10177825, Integrated Cognitive and Decision Models with Applications to Aging and Numeracy (5R01AG041176-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10177825. Licensed CC0.

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