Effect of expertise acquisition on strategic perception: The example of chess

Abstract

The two experiments presented here study perceptual processes implemented by chess players in situations related to their domain of expertise. The aim was to determine how patterns are perceived as a function of their strategic value when players acquire expertise. In this study, conducted on novice and more experienced players, it is hypothesized that with acquisition of expertise players would quickly encode familiar patterns and then rapidly focus their attention on patterns with a higher immediate strategic value. In Experiment 1, participants had to carry out a change-detection task that used the “flicker paradigm”. The results showed that during the perception of standard chess positions, experienced players—but not novices—quickly focused their attention on the most strategic patterns. In Experiment 2, experienced players and novices carried out a recognition task after having encoded chess positions for 1 or 5 s. The results indicated early encoding of familiar patterns without immediate strategic value, followed by the encoding of more strategic patterns. Taken together, the results of these two experiments are consistent with the results by both de Groot and Gobet (1996) and McGregor and Howes (2002) about the strategic content of Chase and Simon's chunks (Chase & Simon, 1973b).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Charness

(1976). Memory for chess positions: Resistance to interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 2, 641–653.

Charness

Reingold

E. M.

Pomplun

Stampe

D. M.

(2001). The perceptual aspect of skilled performance in chess: Evidence from eye movements. Memory & Cognition 29, 1146–1156.

Chase

W. G.

Simon

H. A.

(1973a). The mind's eye in chess. Visual information processing. Chase

W. G.

New York: Academic Press 215–281.

Chase

W. G.

Simon

H. A.

(1973b). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology 4, 55–81.

de Groot

A. D.

(1965). Thought and choice in chess The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton Publishers.

de Groot

A. D.

Gobet

(1996). Perception and memory in chess. Heuristics of the professional eye Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum.

Didierjean

Marmèche

(2005). Anticipatory representation of visual basketball scenes by novice and expert players. Visual Cognition 12, 265–283.

Ericsson

K. A.

Staszewski

J. J.

(1989). Skilled memory and expertise: Mechanisms of exceptional performance. Complex information processing: The impact of Herbert A. Simon. Klahr

Kotovsky

Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ferrari

Didierjean

Marmèche

(2006). Dynamic perception in chess. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology 59, 397–410.

10.

Gobet

(1998). Expert memory: Comparison of four theories. Cognition 66, 115–152.

11.

Gobet

Charness

(2006). Expertise in chess. Ericsson

K. A.

Charness

Feltovich

Hoffman

New York: Cambridge University Press 523–538)Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (.

12.

Gobet

de Voogt

Retschitzki

(2004). Moves in mind: The psychology of board games New York: Psychology Press.

13.

Gobet

Simon

H. A.

(1996a). Recall of random and distorted chess positions: Implications for the theory of expertise. Memory & Cognition 24, 493–503.

14.

Gobet

Simon

H. A.

(1996b). Templates in chess memory: A mechanism for recalling several boards. Cognitive Psychology 31, 1–40.

15.

Gobet

Simon

H. A.

(2000). Five seconds or sixty? Presentation time in expert memory. Cognitive Science 24, 651–682.

16.

Goldin

(1978). Memory for the ordinary: Typicality effects in chess memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 104, 605–611.

17.

Holding

D. H.

Reynolds

(1982). Recall or evaluation of chess positions as determinants of chess skill. Memory & Cognition 10, 237–242.

18.

Jongman

R. W.

(1968). Het oog van de meester Amsterdam: Van Gorcum [The eye of the master].

19.

Lories

(1987). Recall of random and non random chess positions in strong and weak chess players. Psychologica Belgica 27, 153–159.

20.

McGregor

S. J.

Howes

(2002). The role of attack and defense semantics in skilled players’ memory for chess positions. Memory & Cognition 30, 707–717.

21.

Newell

Simon

H. A.

(1972). Human problem solving Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

22.

Reingold

E. M.

Charness

Pomplun Stampe

D. M.

(2001a). Visual span in expert chess players: Evidence from eye movements. Psychological Science 12, 49–56.

23.

Reingold

E. M.

Charness

Schultetus Stampe

D. M.

(2001b). Perceptual automaticity in expert chess players: Parallel encoding of chess relations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 8, 504–510.

24.

Rensink

R. A.

O'Regan

J. K.

Clark

J. J.

(1997). To see or not to see: The need for attention to perceive changes in scenes. Psychological Science 8, 368–373.

25.

Schultetus

Charness

(1999). Recall or evaluation of chess positions revisited: The relationship between memory and evaluation in chess skill. American Journal of Psychology 112, 555–569.

26.

Simons

D. J.

Levin

D. T.

(1997). Change blindness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 1, 261–267.

27.

Simons

D. J.

Rensink

R. A.

(2005). Change blindness: Past, present, and future. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9, 1 16–20.