This meeting was sponsored by NIA's BSR and Neuroscience and Neuropsychology programs. The meeting addressed such issues as: (1) identification of gaps in knowledge about the impact of various contexts on cognition; (2) the feasibility of research on the confluence of different kinds of contexts on cognition; (3) the importance of natural versus artificial contexts; and (4) how findings from these types of studies can be conceptualized more generically. This meeting was held as a result of one of the recommended research initiatives in the recent National Research Council report, The Aging Mind.