Stephen is correct in his recollection of the superior memory for chess positions only when master players are asked to remember chess positions from genuine games. They perform like novices when confronted with pieces randomly arranged on a chess board. (Chase & Simon, 1973, Perception in chess, *Cognitive Psychology, 4,* 55-81)
Also related to the training of expertise in visual search thread begun by Stephen: Look at the work of Shiffrin and Schneider on controlled an automatic processing (the 1977 *Psychological Review* articles). In the first article (Schneider & Shiffrin,* 84*, 1-66), they document the improved speed and accuracy of visual search under "controlled mapping" conditions, when targets are always targets and distractor stimuli are only used as distractors. Although accuracy for targets improves dramatically and becomes very fast, the participants devote little processing to the non-targets and have no idea what these might have been. (They are little more than blurs and the targets "pop out" when they appear.) In the second article (Shiffrin & Schneider, *84,* 127-190) they document the cost associated with this expertise. In one experiment in this series, they ask participants to search for targets in only two of the four areas where stimuli appear (one diagonal of the 2X2 display matrix). Under controlled mapping conditions, trained participants made errors when a target appeared in a two-be-ignored area of the matrix just before a target appeared in a to-be-attended area. The first target draws attention to the to-be-ignored cells of the matrix and this diversion of attention reduced accuracy in detection of the target. _____________________________________________ Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor NSF UWF Faculty ADVANCE Scholar School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences University of West Florida 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 – 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 (direct) or 473-7435 (CUTLA) [email protected] CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=23751 or send a blank email to leave-23751-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
