The effects of aging on time perception and problem solving

Problem solving is one of the most fundamental cognitive abilities. Yet, little is known about how humans solve problems in everyday life. Better understanding how humans build problem representations and solve their mental representations may have implications for several areas of cognitive science: thinking and reasoning, learning, memory, and neuroscience. By understanding what makes a problem difficult, and how people simplify problems, we hope to be able to make problem solving easier, improve education, and incentivize people to solve complex problems in daily life. More specifically, we propose that people estimate problem complexity based on the amount of time they subjectively think it will take to solve a problem. We predict that individual differences in subjective time estimation will affect the complexity of mental problem representations. Because subjective time estimation changes across the lifespan (Block et al., 1998), we expect this effect to be especially pronounced for older adults.