2026 Yale Cognition Workshop | New Data, Methods, and Theory: Life Course Cognitive Inequality

Social and biological processes that shape cognitive aging unfold across decades, yet the mechanisms linking early-life exposures, structural environments, and inequities in later-life cognitive health remain poorly understood. By cognitive inequality, we refer both to how social and structural factors create differences in cognitive trajectories across groups, and to how these disparities may widen over the life course. At the same time, rapid growth in available data sources, such as longitudinal cohorts, neuroimaging and biomarkers, digital cognitive assessments, geospatial and administrative linkages, and new methods, such as machine learning and LLM, offers unparalleled potential to advance the science of cognitive inequality.

The workshop "New Data, Methods, and Theory: Life Course Cognitive Inequality" will chart a forward-looking agenda for aging and disparities research by integrating rigorous social theory with computational innovation, causal inference, and new measurement strategies. This workshop will bring together more than 20 presenters across sociology, epidemiology, psychology, economics, neuroscience, statistics, and data science to drive the next wave of conceptual and methodological breakthroughs in the field. The two-day program features a keynote, six thematic sessions, and a mentoring session. Those who are interested in the workshop can refer to the detailed program for more information.

Register Now for the 2026 Yale Cognition Workshop

Michael Hurd is an adjunct senior principal researcher at RAND. His research interests cover a wide range of topics in the economics of aging including: the structure of private pensions and Social Security and their effects on retirement decisions; the economic status of older persons; the determinants of consumption and saving; the use of health care services; methods of assessing uncertainty in a population; bracketing and anchoring effects in the elicitation of economic information; and the relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality. His most recent research focuses on the monetary costs of dementia, the prevalence of dementia in subpopulations, and the costs of long-term care. Hurd has a Ph.D. in economics and an M.S. in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley.

This workshop is co-organized by Hui Zheng (Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto). If you have any questions, please reach out to Monique Moore (monique.moore@yale.edu).