Do You Google Your Chess Knowledge?

Do you really learn the lessons from your games or opening files? Or do you access and store them as you would use Google?

Nov 16, 2022

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Do you really learn the lessons from your games or opening files? Or do you access and store them as you would use Google?

Online chess study has some similarities to Googling. Technology and user interfaces are making it very easy to request an instant analysis of our games, store our games/lessons, find the first new move according to the database, and get the engine’s evaluation and best move in the position. In a sense becoming an extension of our chess brain.

In the same way, Googling information is the go-to way of looking up information today. Everything we need to know is now within reach. It is easy and convenient. But researchers have found that it also has a downside.

A study by the Kaspersky Lab shows that the majority of digital consumers strongly depend on devices and the Internet as an extension of their brain; and suggests a direct link between data available at the click of a button and a failure to commit that data to memory.1

The big problem for most chess players is, that we do not have access to the internet brain while playing chess.

The before mentioned study also shows that only 26.3% of American consumers say they always memorize information they consider important, or that they note it down somewhere–typically a smartphone.2

“There is an argument to be made that looking up information online, instead of trying to recall it ourselves, makes us shallower thinkers. Past research3 has repeatedly demonstrated that actively recalling information is a very efficient way to create a permanent memory. In contrast, passively repeating information (e.g. by repeatedly looking it up on the Internet) does not create a solid, lasting memory trace in the same way. Based on this research, it can be argued that the trend to look up information before even trying to recall it prevents the build-up of long-term memories, and thus makes us process information merely on a shallow, moment-to-moment basis.” Dr Maria Wimber, Lecturer, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham4

In an experiment published in Psychological Science (2013) the participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and photograph others.

Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects and the objects' locations in the museum than if they instead only observed the objects and did not photograph them. However, when participants zoomed in to photograph a specific part of the object, their subsequent recognition and detail memory was not impaired, and, in fact, memory for features that were not zoomed in on was just as strong as memory for features that were zoomed in on. This finding highlights key differences between people's memory and the camera's "memory" and suggests that the additional attentional and cognitive processes engaged by this focused activity can eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.5

It is quite interesting that using technology in this way actually limits our ability to remember. In a way, we outsource the responsibility of remembering to the device.

Many chess players request a game report after each game and are delivered a neat report with blunders and missed opportunities. I did a Twitter poll and got 502 responses. And as you can see the majority think the feature is helpful for improvement.

But could you actually recall the game worse after doing a quick game report compared to doing your own observations about the game?

When we run a game report after a game we ask the computer to process the lessons from the game and store them in our game database.

In the cognitive science field, there is a term called “cognitive offloading”. It can be described as “the use of physical action to alter the information processing requirements of a task so as to reduce cognitive demand.”6

A recent article ‘Consequences of cognitive offloading: Boosting performance but diminishing memory’ (2021) looks into the question of how cognitive offloading affects subsequent memory for the offloaded information.

Our participants solved the Pattern Copy Task, in which we manipulated the costs of cognitive offloading and the awareness of a subsequent memory test. In Experiment 1 (N = 172), we showed that increasing the costs for offloading induces reduced offloading behaviour. This reduction in offloading came along with lower immediate task performance but more accurate memory in an unexpected test. In Experiment 2 (N = 172), we confirmed these findings and observed that offloading behaviour remained detrimental for subsequent memory performance when participants were aware of the upcoming memory test. Interestingly, Experiment 3 (N = 172) showed that cognitive offloading is not detrimental for long-term memory formation under all circumstances. Those participants who were forced to offload maximally but were aware of the memory test could almost completely counteract the negative impact of offloading on memory. Our experiments highlight the importance of the explicit goal to acquire new memory representations when relying on technical tools as offloading did have detrimental effects on memory without such a goal.7

The article has five conclusions

Cognitive offloading increases immediate task performance but also diminishes subsequent memory performance
If the participants in the experiment had a free choice to offload information, more cognitive offloading was associated with lower subsequent memory performance.
Testing could compensate for at least some of the detrimental effects of cognitive offloading on memory acquisition.
Resources released by cognitive offloading only contribute to the formation of memories when participants have the goal to learn but are rather “lost” without such a learning context.8

In regard to the game reports, it is worth highlighting the importance of figuring out a meaning full way to acquire new memory representations of the lessons learned. Because do we really remember that trap we just fell into in the French advance after a quick game report? Are we offloading the information to the chess.com/lichess database?

In another memory-experiment participants were tested in recalling specific statements. Some participants could save the information others had to erase it, before the recall test. It was shown that knowing that you could not access the information again enhanced the memory of the information while knowing the information was saved on a device only enhanced the memory of the fact that it was stored there, not the recall of the actual information.9

I think many have had the thought "Oh, I know I have stored this line in my opening file.." during a game, without actually remembering the line.

“At the conclusion of the unofficial Blitz Championship of the World at Hercegnovi, Yugoslavia, in 1970, Fischer rattled off the scores of all his twenty-two games, involving more than 1,000 moves, from memory. And just prior to his historic match with Taimanov, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Fischer met the Russian player Vasiukov and showed him a speed game that the two had played in Moscow fifteen years before. Fischer recalled the game move by move.”

For more quotes about chess and memory abilities visit Bill Wall’s page: http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/articles/memory_and_chess.htm

So how do we use all this new information in regard to using game reports, reviewing our files, or in regards to remembering lessons learned from the games we play? The Elizabeth L. Bjork and Robert Bjork

“Be aware, too, when rereading a chapter or your notes, that prior exposures create a sense of familiarity that can easily be confused with understanding. And perhaps most importantly, keep in mind that retrieval—much more than restudying—acts to modify your memory by making the information you practice retrieving more likely to be recallable again in the future and in different contexts. In short, try to spend less time on the input side and more time on the output side, such as summarizing what you have read from memory or getting together with friends and asking each other questions. Any activities that involve testing yourself—that is, activities that require you to retrieve or generate information, rather than just representing information to yourself—will make your learning both more durable and flexible.”10

If I should try to make some advice about how to learn and remember your games based on the information we now know it would be:

Be aware when something becomes too easy and convenient. You risk not remembering if you outsource the storage of information to chess tools.
Test your recall and retrieving of the lessons from memory to enforce the memory becoming permanent. You could write down test questions for yourself after a game and review them after 14 days.
Saving chess information in a file, study, or game report might only help you learn where the information is stored. Creating a memory hook by actively studying the material must be a priority. You could practice the skill of replaying a game you have just played on a board. Then repeat it after a day. Maybe one day you can have your own games database like Fischer.
Use your memory when you study. Try to recreate your opening files from memory and see how much you really remember. For more inspiration check out this article by GM Avetik Grigoryan: ‘How to Memorize Chess Openings and Variations – Without Forgetting Them a Few Days Later!.

I would be interested to hear from you. What do you make of these articles and information? Do you have any tips for creating lasting memories of chess lessons and games? Or are game reports just a great tool?

Say Chess

Do You Google Your Chess Knowledge?

Do you really learn the lessons from your games or opening files? Or do you access and store them as you would use Google?

Do you really learn the lessons from your games or opening files? Or do you access and store them as you would use Google?

But could you actually recall the game worse after doing a quick game report compared to doing your own observations about the game?

The article has five conclusions

Discussion about this post