Cognitive training is not always effective. This is also the case for the form of cognitive training that this Research Topic focuses on: prolonged performance on game-like cognitive tasks. The ultimate goal of this cognitive training is to improve ecologically-valid target functions. For example, cognitive training should help children with ADHD to stay focused at school, or help older adults to manage the complexity of daily life. However, so far this goal has proven too ambitious. Transfer from trained to non-trained tasks is not even guaranteed in a laboratory, so there is a strong need for understanding how, when and for how long cognitive training has effect. Which cognitive functions are amenable to game training, for whom, and how? Are there mediating factors for success, such as motivation, attention, or age? Are the improvements real, or can they be attributed to nonspecific factors, such as outcome expectancy or demand characteristics? Are there better strategies to improve cognitive functions through game training? This Research Topic of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience charts current insights in the determinants of success of game training.

Learn how to take the skills and knowledge you use to make games for entertainment to make serious games: games for education, training, healing, and more. "Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform" teaches game developers how to tap into the rapidly expanding market of serious games. Explore the numerous possibilities that serious games represent such as the ability to teach military training in a non-lethal environment and the ability to convey a particular political viewpoint through a game's storyline. You'll get a detailed overview of all of the major markets for serious games, including the military, educators, government agencies, corporations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, religious groups, and activist groups. Discover the goals of each market, the types of games on which they focus, and market-specific issues you need to consider. Case studies of how professionals in these various markets utilize games provide ideas and inspiration as well as credibility for serious games. "Serious Games" shows you how to apply your game development skills to a new and growing area and also teaches you techniques to make even entertainment-based games richer and more meaningful.

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.

The premise of neuroplasticity on enhancing cognitive functioning among healthy as well as cognitively impaired individuals across the lifespan, and the potential of harnessing these processes to prevent cognitive decline attract substantial scientific and public interest. Indeed, the systematic evidence base for cognitive training, video games, physical exercise and other forms of brain stimulation such as entrain brain activity is growing rapidly. This Research Topic (RT) focused on recent research conducted in the field of cognitive and brain plasticity induced by physical activity, different types of cognitive training, including computerized interventions, learning therapy, video games, and combined intervention approaches as well as other forms of brain stimulation that target brain activity, including electroencephalography and neurofeedback. It contains 49 contributions to the topic, including Original Research articles (37), Clinical Trials (2), Reviews (5), Mini Reviews (2), Hypothesis and Theory (1), and Corrections (2).

This book addresses the ongoing scientific debates regarding video games and their effects on players. The book features opposing perspectives and offers point and counterpoint exchanges in which researchers on both sides of a specific topic make their best case for their findings and analysis. Chapters cover both positive and negative effects of video games on players’ behavior and cognition, from contributing to violence and alienation to promoting therapeutic outcomes for types of cognitive dysfunction. The contrasting viewpoints model presents respectful scientific debate, encourages open dialogue, and allows readers to come to informed conclusions. Key questions addressed include: · Do violent video games promote violence? · Does video game addiction exist? · Should parents limit children’s use of interactive media? · Do action video games promote visual attention? · Does sexist content in video games promote misogyny in real life? · Can video games slow the progress of dementia? · Are video games socially isolating? Video Game Influences on Aggression, Cognition, and Attention is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and professionals as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, social work, educational policy and politics, criminology/criminal justice, child and school psychology, sociology, media law, and other related disciplines.

Throughout the entire lifespan, individuals are required to adapt to the demands of changing developmental contexts and dynamic social environments. The potential modifiability of a person's cognitive and neural processes has been referred to as plasticity. One way to assess cognitive and neural plasticity is to apply training interventions and to measure the related changes in trained and untrained situations. Over the last decade, the literature on the effects of cognitive interventions has been growing rapidly, oftentimes focusing on the magnitude, scope, and maintenance of training-related benefits and their transferability to untrained tasks and abilities. Recent studies show that plasticity is present across the lifespan, although it seems to decline in older age, and that the long-term maintenance as well as the transferability of training gains strongly depends on the type and the intensity of the intervention. The findings from behavioral cognitive training research have also been accompanied by findings from cognitive neuroscience. The related observations oftentimes point to training-induced changes in a number of cortical and subcortical regions, which may be responsible for the magnitude of training and of transfer effects. Thus, cognitive training may be a promising tool for understanding basic mechanisms of adaptive behavior on the one hand and for designing applications and interventions within different disciplines in psychology on the other hand. However, not all studies have consistently shown beneficial effects of cognitive training and some questions that are critical for our understanding of plasticity are still unanswered. What are the key processes mediating training effects on laboratory tasks and in real world situations? Which characteristics of the training process and of the trainings situations mediate transfer effects? Are training effects subject to age-related changes? How are training-induced neural changes in the brain related to improvements in cognitive performance? How effective are training interventions in patients with specific cognitive impairments? To what extent can age-related cognitive decline be compensated by means of cognitive training? The focus of this Research Topic is on training-induced cognitive and neural plasticity across the lifespan. The goal is to provide a broad scope of state-of-the art research in order to enhance our knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying plasticity. We invite contributions applying behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific approaches, reviews, and theoretical contributions. Contributions are also welcomed if they focus on the implications of cognitive training in applied fields like educational and clinical settings as well as rehabilitation and training science.