...study higher order cognition (Newell Simon, 1972; van der Maas Wagenmakers, 2004).

From an individual approach, the focus of cognitive research on chess abilities has mainly been on intelligence and memory capacities. Some authors have stressed that intelligence is associated with chess skills in children (Frydman & Lynn, 1992; Horgan & Morgan, 1990) and male adults (Doll & Mayr, 1987), whereas others found no differences between chess players and non-chess players in general intelligence (Djakow et al, 1927). Concerning memory, a lot of research has been conducted on the recall of chess positions (e.g. Chase & Simon, 1973; Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995; Ericsson, Patel, & Kintsch, 2000; Gobet, 1998, 2000), as well as on visuospatial memory assessed with non-chess specific psychometric instruments (Schneider, Gruber, Gold, & Opwis, 1993; Waters et al., 2002). The pattern-recognition account of chess expertise (e.g. Chase & Simon, 1973) suggests that experts have stored more and larger 'chunks' of meaningful gameboard configurations than do weaker players. As a consequence of recognizing these patterns, they can make relatively good decisions, even under time pressure. This account has strongly influenced research on expertise and decision making in other domains such as fire fighting, medical diagnosis and aviation (e.g. Zsambok & Klein, 1997).

On the other hand, the importance of planning in chess has been highlighted (Gobet, 1997; Holding & Reynolds, 1982; Holding, 1985, 1989; Saariluoma & Hohlfield, 1994). In contrast to the pattern-recognition account of Chase and Simon (1973), Holding (1985) emphasized that the central activity of chess consists of choosing moves, which is an active process of looking (search) for the best (evaluation) moves. The search process is viewed as including elements of planning, since the player must find a path through the search tree that leads to the designated position. Holding and Reynolds (1982) showed that when experts are asked to make a move on a random board game, they make better choices than non-experts. This result indicates that at least some components of chess expertise must be based on search and planning rather simply reflecting retrieval of stored move sequences in response to a recognized pattern.

To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between chess skills and planning abilities as measured by means of psychometrics. According to van der Maas and Wagenmakers (2004), chess is commonly classified into three basic skills: tactical ability, positional insight or judgment and endgame knowledge. Tactical ability should be closely related to some aspects of planning and problem solving, since it is defined as the discovery and accurate calculation of 'combinations'. Tactical ability thus requires the calculation of concrete sequences of moves and countermoves. The generation of move sequences resembles the concept of planning which underlies common neuropsychological diagnostic instruments like the Tower of Hanoi or the Tower of London (ToL; Shallice, 1982). The ToL was introduced by Tim Shallice (1982) to study planning deficits in frontal lobe patients. Carlin et al. (2000) describe the cognitive processes involved in the ToL task as (1) a look-ahead mechanism designed to generate multiple sequences of hypothetical events and their consequences, (2) the development of stored structured event complexes that can guide movement from an initial to a goal state, (3) execution-linked anticipation of future events and (4) recognition of goal attainment. Note that 'planning' in the chess literature has a slightly different meaning: It is defined as 'strategic thinking' or long-range planning' (Saariluoma & Hohlfeld, 1994).

In the present study we compared planning abilities as measured by the ToL test between chess players (ranging from advanced beginners to very experienced chess players) and participants with no experience in playing chess. We also assessed fluid intelligence as well as verbal and visuospatial working memory, which may help to explain possible planning differences between both groups.

Methods

Participants...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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