SPEAKERS

Presentation of the speakers

Claudia von Bastian, Ph.D.

Bibliography : Claudia von Bastian is a cognitive psychologist and head of the Cognitive Ability & Plasticity Lab. Her research focuses on cognitive individual differences and how cognitive abilities can change through experience.

Claudia von Bastian obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Zurich, where she worked with Klaus Oberauer. During her PhD, she also spent a year at the University of Bristol as a visiting researcher in Chris Jarrold's lab. Afterward, she returned to the University of Zurich as a Research Associate and Lecturer. Before joining The University of Sheffield, she was a Research Associate in Akira Miyake's lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, working in close collaboration with Mike Kane, and later a Lecturer in Psychology at Bournemouth University.

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Title: Working memory training: A quick-fix to boost cognitive abilities?

Abstract: Can cognitive abilities such as intelligence be improved through training working memory, the ability to maintain and process information in the present moment? After more than 20 years of cognitive training research, this question is still highly controversial, with previous studies providing contradictory findings. In this talk, I will present recent research evaluating the effectiveness of repetitively practising computer-based cognitive tasks, and discuss the cognitive mechanisms underpinning changes in task performance.

Tilo Strobach, Ph.D.

Bibliography : Tilo Strobach focuses his research on the analysis of cognitive plasticity as a result of 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.
Tilo Strobach studied psychology at the Free University Berlin and started his doctorate at Humboldt University Berlin in 2006. After a research stay at the University of California, San Diego, he finished his doctoral degree in 2009 on mechanisms of optimized dual-task performance after practice. After that he hold post-doc positions at the LMU Munich (2009-2011) and at the Humboldt University Berlin (2011-2014). He also was an acting professor at the University of Hagen and visiting professor at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt. Since 2015, Tilo Strobach is professor for cognitive psychology at the Medical School Hamburg.

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Title: Effects of dual-task practice on task-order coordination and its adaptation

Abstract: Performing two tasks simultaneously involves the coordination of their processing, which is particularly required in dual-task situations with varying orders of the component tasks. Recent studies have shown that these task-coordination processes adapt in response to changes in task demands. However, it is an open question whether task-order coordination processes and processes that adapt this coordination underly the same or different mechanisms. To answer this question, we will apply cognitive training methods.

Sylvie Belleville, Ph.D., MACSS FCAHS

Bibliography : Sylvie Belleville is Full professor at the Psychology Department of the University of Montreal and researcher at the Research Center of the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM). She is recognized for her work in the area of cognitive training for older adults and persons with mild cognitive impairment and on the prevention of age-related cognitive decline. She identified processes of compensation and plasticity in aging using brain imaging techniques. She also developed an important research program on the neuropsychology aging and dementia and has contributed to a better understanding of the neuropsychological deficits found in persons with very early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. She developed a cohort of well-characterized older adults with suspected prodromal Alzheimer’s disease. She published more than 255 peer-reviewed articles and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging and Brain Plasticity.

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Title: Using brain imaging to understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive training and to test its role in improving cognitive reserve in older adults

Abstract: Cognitive training has been found to increase cognition in older adults, but little is known about the mechanisms by which this occurs and whether cognitive training has a similar protective effect to that provided by cognitive reserve. I will present neuroimaging studies that examine the effect of cognitive training on the brain. I will assess how this compares to the effect of whole-life reserve proxies such as education or cognitive engagement. This will provide tests regarding the viability of using cognitive training as a heuristic model of cognitive reserve and as a mean to improve it later in life.