Figure 9.16: Chess memory The top drawings exemplify the types of chess layouts used in chess memory research. On the left is a board taken from a master’s game, and on the right is one with randomly arranged pieces. The graph shows the memory performance (averaged over 13 experiments) of chess players of various skill levels who studied either a game board or a random board for 10 seconds or less. The average number of pieces per board was 25. Skill level is measured in ELO points: 1,600 is Class B, 2,000 is Expert, and 2,200 is Master.

(With permission from Gobet, F., Lane, P. C. R., Croker, S., Cheng, P. C-H., Jones, G., Oliver, I., & Pine, J. M. (2001). Chunking mechanisms in human learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 236-243. Copyright © 2001, with permission from Elsevier.)