Planning abilities and chess: A comparison of chess and non-chess players on the Tower of London task

• Published in: The British journal of psychology Vol. 97; no. 3; pp. 299 - 311
• Main Authors: Unterrainer, J. M., Kaller, C. P., Halsband, U., Rahm, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2006; British Psychological Society; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Aptitude; Biological and medical sciences; Chess; Chess players; Clinical psychology; Cognition. Intelligence; Comparative analysis; Experiments; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Games, Experimental; Humans; Intellect; Intelligence; Intelligence (Psychology); Intelligence levels; Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term; Motivation; Orientation; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Planning; Play and Playthings; Problem Solving; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Reaction Time; Reasoning. Problem solving; Strategic planning; Strategies; Studies; Verbal Learning; United Kingdom; Human; Problem solving; Cognition; Chess game; Planning; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0007-1269; 2044-8295
• DOI: 10.1348/000712605X71407

Playing chess requires problem‐solving capacities in order to search through the chess problem space in an effective manner. Chess should thus require planning abilities for calculating many moves ahead. Therefore, we asked whether chess players are better problem solvers than non‐chess players in a complex planning task. We compared planning performance between chess (N=25) and non‐chess players (N=25) using a standard psychometric planning task, the Tower of London (ToL) test. We also assessed fluid intelligence (Raven Test), as well as verbal and visuospatial working memory. As expected, chess players showed better planning performance than non‐chess players, an effect most strongly expressed in difficult problems. On the other hand, they showed longer planning and movement execution times, especially for incorrectly solved trials. No differences in fluid intelligence and verbal/visuospatial working memory were found between both groups. These findings indicate that better performance in chess players is associated with disproportionally longer solution times, although it remains to be investigated whether motivational or strategic differences account for this result.