During the year 2006, when i was busy doing things in my other life, an article
written by Phil Ross (www.sciam.com) entitled - "The Expert Mind" struck my curiosity about how our mind works.
According to the author, studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters (skill at chess can be easily measured and subjected to laboratory experiments) have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well. He reinforces that chess has served as the greatest single test bed for theories of thinking—the “Drosophila of cognitive science.”
Here's an overview of the most important ideas discussed:
1. Much of the chess master’s advantage over the novice derives from the first few seconds of thought.
2. Researchers have found evidence that chess grandmasters rely on a vast store of knowledge of game positions. Some scientists have theorized that grandmasters organize the information in chunks, which can be quickly retrieved from long-term memory and manipulated in working memory.
3. To accumulate this body of structured knowledge, grandmasters typically engage in years of effortful study, continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond their competence.
4. The top performers in music, mathematics and sports appear to gain their expertise in the same way, motivated by competition and the joy of victory.
5. The 10-year rule states that it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to MASTER any field. - Herbert A. Simon
6. Effortful study is the key to achieving success in chess, classical music, soccer and many other fields. New research has indicated that motivation is a more important factor than innate ability.
7. The predominance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born.
(Credits:Philip E. Ross, a contributing editor at Scientific American, is a chess player himself (USCF Expert) and father of Laura Ross, one of the top female US master who outranks him by 200 points.)
7. The predominance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born.
(Credits:Philip E. Ross, a contributing editor at Scientific American, is a chess player himself (USCF Expert) and father of Laura Ross, one of the top female US master who outranks him by 200 points.)
Link >> Unlocking the Grandmaster's Mind
Dear reader, I hope you are enjoying your time here and reading on my blog posts. Thanks for your attention ;-)
ReplyDeleteFor next installment, we will explore more about the experiments of Dutch psychologist Adriaan de Groot on a Grandmaster’s memory. I’ll post the test positions used in the 1938 AVRO Tournament “recalling game position” experiment between experts and novices.
Similarly with Chase, Simon and Gobet experiments about the “chunking theories” and understanding the limitations of expert memory. And much more information regarding the chess course “Unlocking the Grandmaster’s Mind.”