This book brings together a cutting edge international team of contributors to critically review the current knowledge regarding the effectiveness of training interventions designed to improve cognitive functions in different target populations. There is substantial evidence that cognitive and physical training can improve cognitive performance, but these benefits seem to vary as a function of the type and the intensity of interventions and the way training-induced gains are measured and analyzed. This book further fulfills the need for clarification of the mechanisms underlying cognitive and neural changes occurring after training. This book offers a comprehensive overview of empirical findings and methodological approaches of cognitive training research in different cognitive domains (memory, executive functions, etc.), types of training (working memory training, video game training, physical training, etc.), age groups (from children to young and older adults), target populations (children with developmental disorders, aging workers, MCI patients etc.), settings (laboratory-based studies, applied studies in clinical and educational settings), and methodological approaches (behavioral studies, neuroscientific studies). Chapters feature theoretical models that describe the mechanisms underlying training-induced cognitive and neural changes. Cognitive Training: An Overview of Features and Applications will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, students, and professors in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.

Tilo Strobach finished his doctoral degree at Humboldt University Berlin. After that he held post-doc positions at this university and at LMU Munich. Currently, Tilo Strobach is full professor for cognitive psychology at the Medical School Hamburg. His research focuses on the analysis of cognitive plasticity as a result of training (e.g., video-game, dual-task, working memory, and task switching training) and cognitive aging. Furthermore, he aims at specifying the cognitive processing architecture in situations that demand executive functions as well as the perception of complex objects. Julia Karbach is a developmental cognitive psychologist holding a PhD in Psychology from Saarland University. She currently serves as full professor at Goethe-University Frankfurt. Her research interests include neurocognitive development and plasticity across the lifespan, psychocardiology, and the prediction of academic achievement from primary to tertiary education. Her work has been published in numerous leading peer-reviewed international journals.