iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

As a fellow scrub...we should play some games.

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I think we would need a larger sample though to fully rule out the general imagery abilities. I also did find a paper that I think is cited in the discussion that seems to support the idea that imagery is not directly related to expertise. Definitely worth following up on this question.

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One caveat that is in the full paper is that general imagery's effect on Elo is mediated fully by choice of visual strategy, whereas chess imagery still predicts imagery directly as well as indirectly through strategy use. So while general imagery is important, it may be somewhat task specific.

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Same! Although I feel like maybe I'm getting better at it, I'm still limited by my limited mental imagery. It's frustrating!

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Bonus post: If you're interested at all in chess and blindfold chess, this is a really great book. Lots of cool first-hand accounts throughout history of how different masters approach blindfold chess. This book also covers a lot of the foundational studies of chess psychology.

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You can find all the details in our pre-print: osf.io/eck9s/files/... Shout out to @bjbalas.bsky.social for his invaluable expertise in the psychology of chess! This was a fun collab! And also as a reminder: always take that sabbatical. You never know where your next idea will come from. 13/13

I Was Sort Of Hoping To Be On My Sabbatical Dr Michael Robinavitch

ALT: I Was Sort Of Hoping To Be On My Sabbatical Dr Michael Robinavitch

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There are a number of other findings that I can't cover here, including some mediation analyses, but overall, the results are consistent with what seemed obvious but hadn't been confirmed: Higher chess skill is associated with more vivid mental imagery! But..there are important exceptions! 12/?

Breaking Bad: Yeah, Science!

ALT: Breaking Bad: Yeah, Science!

We also had a few people who reported no mental imagery at all (aphantasics), but one which still had a high Elo (top 10% of our sample). But unlike the other two aphantasics, this one participant reported using visualization strategies. They also did well on the objective imagery task! 11/?

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Better players were more accurate on the task, whereas more vivid imagers had faster reaction times. We also found some interesting effects of board position on accuracy and RT. So both subjective imagery vividness and objective accuracy on our imagery probe task predicted chess skill! 10/?

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We also designed a task to try to get an "objective" measure of imagery. Participants were asked to imagine a chess board within a square on the screen. A green dot appeared somewhere on the screen, and participants had to indicate whether it was at the location of a black or white square. 9/?

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Consistent with our predictions, we found that chess skill (Elo) was positively associated with imagery vividness! This was true both for general imagery vividness (VVIQ) as chess-specific imagery (e.g., trying to solve a puzzle). In other words, stronger players have more vivid imagery! 8/?

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We recruited chess players and had them complete a series of questionnaires and tasks online. The questionnaires included the VVIQ (Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire), as well we designed some questions asking specifically about the vividness of imagery during chess. 7/?

Mr Bean Benestad: Exam Antics

ALT: Mr Bean Benestad: Exam Antics

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But despite the seeming importance of imagery to chess, blindfold chess, and various anecdotes, there wasn't really much evidence in the literature. This is where Ben and I decided we should try to see: is visual imagery vividness associated with chess skill. 6/?

Thomas Dolby Exclaims 'SCIENCE!'

ALT: Thomas Dolby Exclaims 'SCIENCE!'

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There's also a long tradition in chess of playing games "blindfolded" and not even being able to view the board. Surely this must require mental imagery! And yet, throughout history there are anecdotes of very strong blindfold chess players who report not using mental imagery at all. 5/?

You can even see in this GIF that as Hikaru (one of the world's top players) is trying to solve this puzzle, he looks away from the board! Almost like the board is interfering with his ability to plan the next moves. What's going on here? 4/?

Chess Player: I Don't Wanna Think Too Much

ALT: Chess Player: I Don't Wanna Think Too Much

I was thinking a lot about mental imagery at the time, and I started to wonder: do elite chess players have really strong mental imagery, and if so does this help? Being able to visualize future board positions felt like it would be a huge advantage. It was also something I struggled with! 3/?

Hikaru Nakamura's Intense Chess Stare

ALT: Hikaru Nakamura's Intense Chess Stare

A few years ago I was on sabbatical and I was playing a lot of chess and watching a lot of chess videos between bursts of grant writing. I was fascinated by the grandmasters' ability to solve complex problems, sometimes even without looking at a board. How were they able to do accomplish this? 2/?

Magnus Carlsen: Chess Master's Intense Focus

ALT: Magnus Carlsen: Chess Master's Intense Focus

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I'm really excited to share the results of a new study that @bjbalas.bsky.social and I have been working on this summer. This project was a bit of a labor of love. If you're interested in #chess, mental imagery, #aphantasia, or the value of a sabbatical, this is a 🧵 for you: 1/?