Expertise and age effects on knowledge activation in chess
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach
Published on: February 14, 2014
Tiffany S Jastrzembski1, Neil Charness, Catherine Vasyukova
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA.
Abstract:
Novice, intermediate, and expert chess players of various ages, playing with two chess pieces on a quarter-section of a chessboard, performed a simple task to detect that the king is in check or is threatened with being in check. Age slowed response for both tasks. An interaction of task and skill revealed differences in diminishing response time between check and threat tasks as skill increased; experts were equally fast on both tasks. Measures of speed and working memory were negatively related to age but unrelated to skill. Skill did not mitigate age-related effects on speed of detection. These results suggest that knowledge-activation processes necessary to assess basic chess relationships slow with age, even in experts.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition
Cognitive Learning
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Impact of Schemas
Social Facilitation
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

