Time Spent Thinking in Online Chess Reflects the Value of Computation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Decision Science
• Computational Psychology

Background:

• Human planning is characterized by efficiency, focusing on a limited set of options.
• This efficiency may stem from the intelligent allocation of finite cognitive resources.
• The time invested in thinking is hypothesized to correlate with the computational benefits and costs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether the time humans spend thinking before acting is sensitive to the value of additional computation.
• To test the hypothesis that cognitive resource allocation is optimized based on the expected utility of further deliberation.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of over 12 million online chess games to measure player thinking time.
• Correlating thinking time with the strategic benefit of additional computation in specific board positions.
• Developing a computational model to assess the cost of thinking time.

Main Results:

• Players allocated more thinking time to positions where additional computation yielded greater benefits.
• This sensitivity to computational value was more pronounced in stronger chess players.
• The observed relationship between thinking time and computational value was robust when considering only player-available information.

Conclusions:

• Human thinking time is not fixed but is adaptively adjusted based on the perceived value of computation.
• These findings support theories of intelligent resource allocation in human decision-making.
• The study provides empirical evidence for the rational deployment of cognitive resources in complex strategic tasks.