Chess expert or beginner - what makes the difference??

Case Study "Neurosciences"

The University of Tübingen used SMI MRI eye tracking and MRI data on brain activity to examine the mechanisms and neural basis behind expertise - using chess as a paradigm. The results: Object and pattern recognition form the basis not only of chess expertise but also of our everyday expertise.

<- Overview Case Studies

Challenge

Comparing experts with novices offers unique insights into the functioning of cognition. However, the extensive behavioral research on the topic still lacks understanding of the brain structures that mediate experts’ outstanding performance.

Solution

In a study with SMI MRI eye tracking technology, the expertise approach was used to disentangle the mechanisms and neural basis behind two processes that contribute to everyday expertise: object and pattern recognition. Researchers of the University of Tübingen, compared chess experts and novices performing chess-related and -unrelated (visual) search tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

As expected, the superiority of experts was limited to the chess-specific task. The analysis of eye movements showed that experts used pattern knowledge to immediately and exclusively focus on the relevant aspects in the chess task, while novices also examined irrelevant aspects.

With random chess positions, when pattern knowledge could not be used to guide perception, experts nevertheless maintained an advantage. Experts’ superior domain-specific parafoveal vision, a consequence of their knowledge about individual domain-specific symbols, enabled improved object recognition.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging corroborated this differentiation between object and pattern recognition and showed that chess-specific object recognition was accompanied by bilateral activation of the occipito-temporal junction, while chess-specific pattern recognition was related to bilateral activations in the middle part of the collateral sulci.

Benefit

Using the expertise approach, researchers identified object and pattern recognition as two essential cognitive processes in expert visual cognition, which may also help to explain the mechanisms of everyday perception.

SMI Eye Tracking

The specially shielded SMI MRI eye tracking system allowed for the measurement of eye movement required for this study during the simultaneous recording of the  brain activity.

 

Get more information.