Saarland University, Germany Presentation Topic: Is The Transfer Of Task-Switching Training In Older Adults Dependent On The Type Of Training? The Impact Of Working Memory And Inhibitions Demands                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Abstract: Recent aging studies on training in cognitive control found that older adults benefitted more from training in task switching than younger ones, that is, they showed larger transfer to untrained but similar switching tasks (Karbach & Kray, 2009). However, in this study participants practiced task switching (a) with bivalent stimuli, requiring the inhibition of irrelevant task attributes, and (b) without task cues, helping them keeping track of the task sequence. The aim of the present study is to specify the training conditions under which transfer occurs. To this end we created conditions in which working-memory and inhibition demands were reduced. Performance improvements were compared between four training groups that differed in practicing task switching with univalent or bivalent stimuli (variation of inhibition control) and with and without task cues (variation of memory demands) and an active control group (practicing single tasks) in a pretest-training-posttest design. Results indicated that all training groups showed improvements in task switching with increasing practice, independently of age and training condition. We also found larger improvements in task switching to a new untrained task in older than in younger adults. Interestingly, for younger adults improvements were independent of the training condition, while for older adults improvements were larger for conditions with bivalent stimuli, requiring inhibition of irrelevant task attributes in the context of switching. Hence, it seems that memory and switching demands alone are not critical components for the occurrence of transfer in the elderly. We will also report findings on far transfer and maintenance effects.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Bio: Jutta Kray is currently a Full Professor for Developmental Psychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. She received her PhD from Free University Berlin in 1998 and then worked as a Research Scientist and later as Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. In 2000 she received the Margret-and-Paul Baltes Prize for outstanding dissertations in Developmental Psychology. Her research interests are the Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan, Behavioral and Neuronal Changes in Cognitive Control, and Cognitive Interventions.