Training Cognition: Optimizing Efficiency, Durability, and Generalizability

Training is both a teaching and a learning experience, and just about everyone has had that experience. Training involves acquiring knowledge and skills. This newly acquired training information is meant to be applicable to specific activities, tasks, and jobs. In modern times, where jobs are increasingly more complex, training workers to perform successfully is of more importance than ever. The range of contexts in which training is required includes industrial, corporate, military, artistic, and sporting, at all levels from assembly line to executive function. The required training can take place in a variety of ways and settings, including the classroom, the laboratory, the studio, the playing field, and the work environment itself.

The general goal of this book is to describe the current state of research on training using cognitive psychology to build a complete empirical and theoretical picture of the training process. The book focuses on training cognition, as opposed to physical or fitness training. It attempts to show how to optimize training efficiency, durability, and generalizability. The book includes a review of relevant cognitive psychological literature, a summary of recent laboratory experiments, a presentation of original theoretical ideas, and a discussion of possible applications to real-world training settings.

Alice F. Healy is College Professor of Distinction and Director of the Center for Research on Training at the University of Colorado. She has served as Editor of Memory & Cognition, as Chair of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as President of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, as President of the Division of Experimental Psychology (Division 3) of the American Psychological Association, and as Chair of the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

Lyle E. Bourne, Jr. is Professor Emeritus and Former Chairman of the Department of Psychology and Former Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado. He has served as President of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, President of the Federation of Cognitive, Psychological, and Behavioral Sciences, and President of both the Division of Experimental Psychology (Division 3) and the Society of General Psychology (Division 1) of the American Psychological Association.