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Expertise and age effects on knowledge activation in chess.
Tiffany S Jastrzembski1, Neil Charness, Catherine Vasyukova
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA.
Psychology and Aging
|June 14, 2006
Summary
Aging slows chess players' ability to detect threats, even for experts. Chess skill doesn't overcome age-related declines in processing speed for these basic tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience of aging
Background:
- Chess expertise involves complex cognitive processes.
- Aging is known to affect cognitive functions, including processing speed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how age and chess skill influence the detection of immediate threats (check) and potential threats (threat of check).
- To determine if chess expertise mitigates age-related cognitive slowing.
Main Methods:
- Participants of varying skill levels (novice to expert) and ages performed a simplified chess task.
- Response times were measured for detecting check and threat of check with two chess pieces.
Main Results:
- Response times for both check and threat detection slowed with increasing age.
- Chess experts showed no difference in speed between detecting check and threat.
- Age-related slowing in detection speed was not mitigated by chess skill.
Conclusions:
- Knowledge-activation processes for basic chess relationships slow with age.
- Cognitive aging impacts even highly skilled individuals in specific domains like chess.