Novice Chess Players Research Articles

Acute Effects of Mental Activity on Response of Serum BDNF and IGF-1 Levels in Elite and Novice Chess Players.

Background and Objectives: Although the effects of physical exercise on brain functions are well studied, the influence of mental activity is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of a session of mental activity on brain neurobiological factors in chess players. Materials and Methods: Ten elite and novice chess players were recruited to participate in this study as volunteers. The subjects performed a session of standard chess matches as a mental activity. Before and after each chess match, blood samples were drawn to analyze changes in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Results: After each chess match, both the elite and novice groups showed significant increases in serum BDNF and IGF-1 concentrations. The elite group also showed significantly greater changes in BDNF and IGF-1 levels (p ≤ 0.05) than the novice group. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a session of standard chess matches as a mental activity is effective for elevating BDNF and IGF-1 levels, and that their elevation in elite players seems to be more pronounced than those in novice players.

Confirmation Bias as a Default Heuristic in Novice Chess Players' Problem Solving

Confirmation bias, the compiling of cases verifying one’s beliefs, as opposed to cases to falsify one’s beliefs (falsification), has been linked to inefficient and systematic error in human thinking. Previous research has suggested that when task-specific information is lacking or cognitive demands are high, reasoners will rely on a confirmation strategy as a heuristic when engaging in hypothesis testing. To investigate this hypothesis a combined think aloud-retrospective method was adopted to examine levels of confirmation at novice and expert levels of chess expertise. Ten chess novices and ten experts were instructed to think aloud while choosing a move in given chess positions. Verbalised move sequences were recorded and called back to the chess player to elicit whether they led to a positive (confirming) outcome or negative (falsifying) outcome. It was predicted that novices who do not typically possess substantial amounts of chess specific knowledge would rely on a confirming strategy as a heuristic to select a move in a game of chess. Chess experts have been found to possess large repositories of chess specific knowledge in long-term memory. Access to such knowledge was predicted to reduce cognitive load when choosing a chess move so that experts confirm to a lesser extent and falsify to a greater extent than novices when selecting chess moves. Significant evidence was found to support the use of a confirmation strategy by novices when choosing a move. Experts where found to falsify to a greater extent than confirm when compared to novices as predicted.

The neural correlates of theory of mind and their role during empathy and the game of chess: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Chess involves the capacity to reason iteratively about potential intentional choices of an opponent and therefore involves high levels of explicit theory of mind [ToM] (i.e. ability to infer mental states of others) alongside clear, strategic rule-based decision-making. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used on 12 healthy male novice chess players to identify cortical regions associated with chess, ToM and empathizing. The blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) response for chess and empathizing tasks was extracted from each ToM region. Results showed neural overlap between ToM, chess and empathizing tasks in right-hemisphere temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) [BA40], left-hemisphere superior temporal gyrus [BA22] and posterior cingulate gyrus [BA23/31]. TPJ is suggested to underlie the capacity to reason iteratively about another’s internal state in a range of tasks. Areas activated by ToM and empathy included right-hemisphere orbitofrontal cortex and bilateral middle temporal gyrus: areas that become active when there is need to inhibit one’s own experience when considering the internal state of another and for visual evaluation of action rationality. Results support previous findings, that ToM recruits a neural network with each region sub-serving a supporting role depending on the nature of the task itself. In contrast, a network of cortical regions primarily located within right- and left-hemisphere medial-frontal and parietal cortex, outside the internal representational network, was selectively recruited during the chess task. We hypothesize that in our cohort of novice chess players the strategy was to employ an iterative thinking pattern which in part involved mentalizing processes and recruited core ToM-related regions.

Chess players' eye movements reveal rapid recognition of complex visual patterns: Evidence from a chess-related visual search task.

To explore the perceptual component of chess expertise, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players during a chess-related visual search task that tested anecdotal reports that a key differentiator of chess skill is the ability to visualize the complex moves of the knight piece. Specifically, chess players viewed an array of four minimized chessboards, and they rapidly searched for the target board that allowed a knight piece to reach a target square in three moves. On each trial, there was only one target board (i.e., the "Yes" board), and for the remaining "lure" boards, the knight's path was blocked on either the first move (the "Easy No" board) or the second move (i.e., "the Difficult No" board). As evidence that chess experts can rapidly differentiate complex chess-related visual patterns, the experts (but not the novices) showed longer first-fixation durations on the "Yes" board relative to the "Difficult No" board. Moreover, as hypothesized, the task strongly differentiated chess skill: Reaction times were more than four times faster for the experts relative to novices, and reaction times were correlated with within-group measures of expertise (i.e., official chess ratings, number of hours of practice). These results indicate that a key component of chess expertise is the ability to rapidly recognize complex visual patterns.

Expert vs. novice differences in the detection of relevant information during a chess game: evidence from eye movements.

The present study explored the ability of expert and novice chess players to rapidly distinguish between regions of a chessboard that were relevant to the best move on the board, and regions of the board that were irrelevant. Accordingly, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players, while they selected white's best move for a variety of chess problems. To manipulate relevancy, we constructed two different versions of each chess problem in the experiment, and we counterbalanced these versions across participants. These two versions of each problem were identical except that a single piece was changed from a bishop to a knight. This subtle change reversed the relevancy map of the board, such that regions that were relevant in one version of the board were now irrelevant (and vice versa). Using this paradigm, we demonstrated that both the experts and novices spent more time fixating the relevant relative to the irrelevant regions of the board. However, the experts were faster at detecting relevant information than the novices, as shown by the finding that experts (but not novices) were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information during the early part of the trial. These findings further demonstrate the domain-related perceptual processing advantage of chess experts, using an experimental paradigm that allowed us to manipulate relevancy under tightly controlled conditions.

The Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions of the Einstellung Effect in Chess: Evidence from Eye Movements

In a wide range of problem-solving settings, the presence of a familiar solution can block the discovery of better solutions (i.e., the Einstellung effect). To investigate this effect, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players while they solved chess problems that contained a familiar move (i.e., the Einstellung move), as well as an optimal move that was located in a different region of the board. When the Einstellung move was an advantageous (but suboptimal) move, both the expert and novice chess players who chose the Einstellung move continued to look at this move throughout the trial, whereas the subset of expert players who chose the optimal move were able to gradually disengage their attention from the Einstellung move. However, when the Einstellung move was a blunder, all of the experts and the majority of the novices were able to avoid selecting the Einstellung move, and both the experts and novices gradually disengaged their attention from the Einstellung move. These findings shed light on the boundary conditions of the Einstellung effect, and provide convergent evidence for Bilalić, McLeod, & Gobet (2008)’s conclusion that the Einstellung effect operates by biasing attention towards problem features that are associated with the familiar solution rather than the optimal solution.

Practice, intelligence, and enjoyment in novice chess players: A prospective study at the earliest stage of a chess career

Previous studies have generally found no relation between IQ and chess skill in chess experts. This lack of a relation could be due to the influence of practice being more important than IQ in chess expertise. An alternative explanation is that IQ is relatively high and might therefore be restricted in range in chess experts. The current study investigated the contribution of practice, IQ and motivation to chess performance prospectively in a group of young, novice chess players in which IQ restriction of range did not play a role. Children who entered their first chess course were asked to complete weekly diaries indicating the amount of practice and their enjoyment of the course. IQ and motivation were measured using standardized tests. Using path analysis, we found that IQ and practice independently predicted chess performance on a chess test at the end of the course. Motivation influenced performance indirectly, by moderating the amount of practice that was undertaken. The results indicate that, at the early stages of expertise development, IQ and motivation influence chess performance.

Playing chess unconsciously.

Expertise in a certain stimulus domain enhances perceptual capabilities. In the present article, the authors investigate whether expertise improves perceptual processing to an extent that allows complex visual stimuli to bias behavior unconsciously. Expert chess players judged whether a target chess configuration entailed a checking configuration. These displays were preceded by masked prime configurations that either represented a checking or a nonchecking configuration. Chess experts, but not novice chess players, revealed a subliminal response priming effect, that is, faster responding when prime and target displays were congruent (both checking or both nonchecking) rather than incongruent. Priming generalized to displays that were not used as targets, ruling out simple repetition priming effects. Thus, chess experts were able to judge unconsciously presented chess configurations as checking or nonchecking. A 2nd experiment demonstrated that experts' priming does not occur for simpler but uncommon chess configurations. The authors conclude that long-term practice prompts the acquisition of visual memories of chess configurations with integrated form-location conjunctions. These perceptual chunks enable complex visual processing outside of conscious awareness.

Expert and “novice” problem solving strategies in chess: Sixty years of citing de Groot (1946)

In a famous study of expert problem solving, de Groot (1946/1978) examined how chess players found the best move. He reported that there was little difference in the way that the best players (Grand Masters) and very good players (Candidate Masters) searched the board. Although this result has been regularly cited in studies of expertise, it is frequently misquoted. It is often claimed that de Groot found no difference in the way that experts and novices investigate a problem. Comparison of expert and novice chess players on de Groot's problem shows that there are clear differences in their search patterns. We discuss the troublesome theoretical and practical consequences of incorrectly reporting de Groot's findings.

Effects of Part-Set Cuing on Experienced and Novice Chess Players' Reconstruction of a Typical Chess Midgame Position

A typical midgame chess position was presented to participants for 30 sec. Participants then reconstructed the presented position on a second board from memory. Following a brief distraction phase, participants were asked to reconstruct the position a second time with 0, 6, or 12 of the original pieces present. It was hypothesized that cue presentation during second reconstruction would be more disruptive to experienced players' recall than to novices'. Recall was measured in terms of correct pieces placed, new items generated (reminiscence), and previously recalled items omitted (forgetting). Analysis indicated that cues neither facilitated nor inhibited recall: experienced players performed better than novice players across recall indices, with the exception of reminiscence at which both groups performed similarly.

Monitoring accuracy and self‐regulation when learning to play a chess endgame

AbstractIn order to examine the effect of monitoring and self‐regulation on skill acquisition, the present study asked novice chess players to provide judgments of learning (JOLs) and to select moves for restudy after studying an endgame of chess. In four groups, we varied the JOL instruction (present versus absent) and the selection instruction (free number of move selections versus selection of at least two moves per chess exercise). After four learning trials, participants were required to play against a chess computer. In the learning phase, participants who were forced to select moves for restudy outperformed those who were free to select moves for restudy when predicting the next computer move, even after controlling for the actual number of restudied moves. Although the groups that did provide JOLs showed better self‐regulatory behaviour, there were no or even negative performance differences between the groups that did provide JOLs and the groups that did not provide JOLs. This same pattern emerged in the test phase: Although no differences were found between the groups with and without JOLs, the groups that were forced to select moves for restudy outperformed the groups that were free in the number of move selections. These data show that, for novice chess players, the instruction to provide JOLs possibly places a high and ineffective load on working memory and therefore has no effect on learning a chess endgame. To examine the relation between prior knowledge and quality of self‐regulation, further research is needed that examines the effect of the JOL and selection instruction in groups that differ in chess experience. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Use of a Prediction Paradigm to Evaluate Proficient Decision Making

The contrast between proficient and novice chess players was examined. A chess game played between two experts was used as the target. Subjects were never shown the actual game but were asked to predict the moves played. Feedback was given after each prediction. The proficient players were significantly more accurate than novices. They also were more likely to generate the correct option as the first one they considered and made fewer guesses about the predicted move. The data are interpreted as supporting a recognitional model of decision making. In addition, the findings suggest the value of using the prediction paradigm to study decision making in ill-defined tasks where there are no criteria for correct responses. Implications for training are discussed.

Cognitive Reorganization and the development of chess expertise

Abstract One current research strategy in the study of expertise is to compare experts and novices. An important aspect of decision making involves looking for similarities among problem types. Little is known about such processes. We used grid technique to examine similarity judgments associated with different levels of chess expertise. Novice, expert, and master chess players evaluated 4 sets of 12 chess boards. Average FIC scores showed a curvilinear relation to expertise, suggesting increasing differentiation followed by integration in cognitive frameworks for construing board positions. Additional cognitive measures based on move generation tended to support and extend this structural model.

The generality of the levels of processing hypothesis: An application to memory for chess positions

The generality of the levels of processing approach to memory was tested by using chess positions rather than words as stimuli. Experiment 1 compared recall following semantic orienting instructions (find the best move and determine which side has the advantage), formal orienting instructions (determine the number of pieces on light squares and the number of pieces on dark squares), and intentional learning instructions using 19 novice chess players as subjects. Formal orienting instructions produced poorer recall than did either semantic orienting or intentional learning instructions, which yielded similar levels of retention. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 with 16 tournament chess players. Chess rating correlated with recall .82 under semantic orienting instructions but only —.15 under formal orienting instructions. It was concluded that the levels of processing framework has applicability outside the area of verbal learning.