Abstract
A widely cited result asserts that experts’ superiority over novices in recalling meaningful material from their domain of expertise vanishes when they are confronted with random material. A review of recent chess experiments in which random positions served as control material (presentation time between 3 and 10 sec) shows, however, that strong players generally maintain some superiority over weak players even with random positions, although the relative difference between skill levels is much smaller than with game positions. The implications of this finding for expertise in chess are discussed and the question of the recall of random material in other domains is raised.
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Preparation of this article was supported by Grant No. 8210-30606 from the Swiss National Funds of Scientific Research to F.G. and Grant No. DBS-912-1027 from the National Science Foundation to H.A.S. The authors extend their thanks to Neil Charness, David Lane, Howard Richman, Pertti Saariluoma, Jim Staszewski, and Shmuel Ur for valuable comments on parts of this research.
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Gobet, F., Simon, H.A. Recall of rapidly presented random chess positions is a function of skill. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 3, 159–163 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212414
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212414
Keywords
- Random Position
- Chess Player
- American Journal ofPsychology
- Strong Player
- Skill Difference