ABSTRACT

Research into expertise in general and board games in particular has been dominated by studies of memory. There are three reasons for this state of affairs. First, memory has traditionally been a popular topic for scientific psychology. Second, it is easier, both conceptually and practically, to carry out experiments on memory than, say, perception or problem solving. And, finally, Chase and Simon’s series of papers on chess memory, which have had such an impact on research into expertise (Charness, 1992), also had a direct influence on the type of methodology used. In spite of this emphasis on memory, most researchers’ ultimate goal is still to understand expertise in general; hence, links with perception, problem solving, and decision making are apparent in the works reviewed in this chapter.