Scientific American article: The Expert Mind

The August 2006 Scientific American has an interesting article entitled “The Expert Mind” by Philip E. Ross. The subtitle is “Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well.” The article summarizes cognitive research into chess expertise, beginning with de Groot and continuing through recent studies.

Here’s the overview:

• “Because skill at chess can be easily measured and subjected to laboratory experiments, the game has become an important test bed for theories in cognitive science.
• Researchers have found evidence that chess grandmasters rely on a vast store of knowledge of game positions. Some scientists have theorized that grandmasters organize information in chunks, which can be quickly retrieved from long-term memory and manipulated in working memory.
• To accumulate this body of knowledge, grandmasters typically engage in years of effortful study, continuously tackling challenges that lie just beyond their competence. The top performers in music, mathematics and sports apears to gain their expertise in the same way, motivated by competition and the joy of victory.” page 66