Expertise in Complex Decision Making: The Role of Search in Chess 70 Years After de Groot
Abstract
One of the most influential studies in all expertise research is de Groot’s (1946) study of chess players, which suggested that pattern recognition, rather than search, was the key determinant of expertise. Many changes have occurred in the chess world since de Groot’s study, leading some authors to argue that the cognitive mechanisms underlying expertise have also changed. We decided to replicate de Groot’s study to empirically test these claims and to examine whether the trends in the data have changed over time. Six Grandmasters, five International Masters, six Experts, and five Class A players completed the think‐aloud procedure for two chess positions. Findings indicate that Grandmasters and International Masters search more quickly than Experts and Class A players, and that both groups today search substantially faster than players in previous studies. The findings, however, support de Groot’s overall conclusions and are consistent with predictions made by pattern recognition models.
Number of times cited: 10
- Abolfazl Alipour, Sahar Seifzadeh, Hadi Aligholi and Mohammad Nami, QEEG-based neural correlates of decision making in a well-trained eight year-old chess player, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, (1), (2017).
- Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz, Rodrigo C. Vergara, Vladimir López, Domingo Mery and Diego Cosmelli, Modeling Search Behaviors during the Acquisition of Expertise in a Sequential Decision-Making Task, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 11, (2017).
- María Juliana Leone, Diego Fernandez Slezak, Diego Golombek and Mariano Sigman, Time to decide: Diurnal variations on the speed and quality of human decisions, Cognition, 158, (44), (2017).
- Nemanja Vaci and Merim Bilalić, Chess databases as a research vehicle in psychology: Modeling large data, Behavior Research Methods, 10.3758/s13428-016-0782-5, 49, 4, (1227-1240), (2016).
- Christopher A. Webb, Jared W. Keeley and Deborah K. Eakin, Are Clinicians Better Than Lay Judges at Recalling Case Details? An Evaluation of Expert Memory, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72, 4, (384-400), (2016).
- Lennart Fischer, Joseph Baker, Rebecca Rienhoff, Bernd Strauß, Judith Tirp, Dirk Büsch and Jörg Schorer, Perceptual-cognitive expertise of handball coaches in their young and middle adult years, Journal of Sports Sciences, 34, 17, (1637), (2016).
- Wolff‐Michael Roth and Timothy J. Mavin, Peer Assessment of Aviation Performance: Inconsistent for Good Reasons, Cognitive Science, 39, 2, (405-433), (2014).
- Michael H. Connors and Guillermo Campitelli, Expertise and the representation of space, Frontiers in Psychology, 5, (2014).
- Xujun Duan, Zhiliang Long, Huafu Chen, Dongmei Liang, Lihua Qiu, Xiaoqi Huang, Timon Cheng-Yi Liu and Qiyong Gong, Functional organization of intrinsic connectivity networks in Chinese-chess experts, Brain Research, 10.1016/j.brainres.2014.02.033, 1558, (33-43), (2014).
- Robert Gaschler, Johanna Progscha, Kieran Smallbone, Nilam Ram and Merim Bilalić, Playing off the curve - testing quantitative predictions of skill acquisition theories in development of chess performance, Frontiers in Psychology, 5, (2014).
