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N Charness

Publications and source records attributed to N Charness.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Word-processing training and retraining: effects of adult age, experience, and interface.

Novice (Experiment 1) and experienced (Experiment 2) young, middle-aged, and older adults learned a new word-processing application in keystrokes, menus, or menus-plus-icons interface conditions. Novices showed strong age differences in the time to complete the 3-day tutorial and in declarative and procedural tests of word-processing knowledge. Menus and menus-plus-icons were superior to keystrokes condition. though interface did not interact with age. Experienced users showed age-related slowing in learning rate but minimal age differences in test performance when retrained on a new word-processing program. Age and computer experience accounted for much of the variance in both learning time and word-processing performance; interface type, speed of processing, and spatial generation ability made additional contributions. Experience interacted with age to predict performance. Implications for training and retraining older workers are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Visual span in expert chess players: evidence from eye movements.

The reported research extends classic findings that after briefly viewing structured, but not random, chess positions, chess masters reproduce these positions much more accurately than less-skilled players. Using a combination of the gaze-contingent window paradigm and the change blindness flicker paradigm, we documented dramatically larger visual spans for experts while processing structured, but not random, chess positions. In addition, in a check-detection task, a minimized 3 x 3 chessboard containing a King and potentially checking pieces was displayed. In this task, experts made fewer fixations per trial than less-skilled players, and had a greater proportion of fixations between individual pieces, rather than on pieces. Our results provide strong evidence for a perceptual encoding advantage for experts attributable to chess experience, rather than to a general perceptual or memory superiority.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Perceptual automaticity in expert chess players: parallel encoding of chess relations.

A check detection task in a 5 x 5 section of the chessboard, containing a King and one or two potential checking pieces was employed. The checking status (i.e., the presence or absence of a check) and the number of attackers (one or two) were manipulated. It was found that the reaction time cost for adding a distractor was differentially greater in no trials than yes trials for novice, but not for expert, chess players. In addition, we contrasted standard check detection trials with trials in which one of two attackers was cued (colored red) and the task was to determine the checking status of the cued attacker while ignoring the other attacker. We documented a Stroop-like interference effect on trials in which a cued nonchecking attacker appeared together with an attacker that was checking (i.e., incongruent). These findings suggest automatic and parallel encoding procedures for chess relations in experts.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

The perceptual aspect of skilled performance in chess: evidence from eye movements.

Expert and intermediate chess players attempted to choose the best move in five chess positions while their eye movements were monitored. Experts were faster and more accurate than intermediates in choosing the best move. Experts made fewer fixations per trial and greater amplitude saccades than did intermediates, but there was no difference in fixation duration across skill groups. Examining the spatial distribution of the first five fixations for each position by skill group revealed that experts produced more fixations on empty squares than did intermediates. When fixating pieces, experts produced a greater proportion of fixations on relevant pieces than did intermediates. It is argued that expert chess players perceptually encode chess configurations, rather than individual pieces, and, consequently, parafoveal or peripheral processing guides their eye movements, producing a pattern of saccadic selectivity by piece saliency.

Cognition↗
PubMed2001

Human factors and environmental support in Alzheimer's disease.

Cognitive aging research suggests that environmental support can minimize memory failures in older adults. Similarly, designers of dwellings for frail and dementing older populations try to provide prosthetic environments to support greater independence. We review some of these research issues and design practices from a human factors perspective. Early in the disease process training approaches may be most effective, whereas later on there will need to be more reliance on effective design. We also suggest a framework for optimizing design across stakeholders and discuss some public policy issues.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

Age, luminance, and print legibility in homes, offices, and public places.

Field studies were conducted in homes, offices, and public places with younger and older adults to determine how legibility performance (in a proofreading and phone book search) changes with age and luminance. Homes and public places generally exhibited much lower than recommended luminance values for reading. Older adults had higher light levels in their homes than did younger adults at reading locations. Older adults performed less quickly than did younger adults on most legibility tasks. Adding light helped younger and older adults equally for most legibility tasks (in homes and public places), though increased luminance differentially improved the performance of older office workers. In response to feedback about low light levels, nearly 60% of building managers in public places indicated in a 6-month follow-up that they had improved lighting or were planning to do so. Actual or potential applications of this work include setting luminance guidelines for adults and identifying barriers to lighting changes.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Recall or evaluation of chess positions revisited: the relationship between memory and evaluation in chess skill.

We extend work by Holding and Reynolds (1982) on recall and problem solving with quasirandom chess positions. We tested 17 chess players on both quasirandom and structured chess positions. Consistent with the earlier study, initial recall of quasirandom chess positions is unrelated to chess skill level, and quality of the move selected in subsequent problem solving is related to skill level. However, recall following problem solving is related to chess skill level. These results support the view that pattern recognition processes underlie superior performance by skilled chess players, contrary to the conclusions of Holding and Reynolds (1982). Mechanisms such as long-term working memory retrieval structures (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995) or templates (Gobet & Simon, 1996a) could explain the effective encoding of quasirandom positions during problem solving.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Memory knowledge and memory monitoring in adulthood.

Age differences in 2 specific processing dimensions of metamemory, namely memory knowledge and memory monitoring, were examined. Young and old Ss recalled lists of words paired with letter, rhyme, and meaning cues over 2 trials. On both trials, Ss made predictions of recall likelihood on presentation of each word-cue pair. No age differences in initial predictions (i.e., prior memory knowledge) were apparent, whereas age-based performance differences were observed. On Trial 2, both young and old Ss significantly revised their predictions; however, old adults monitored only global discrepancies between previous expectation and performance. Young adults raised and lowered expectations across cue types in accordance with their previous performance. Age differences in processing speed accounted for some but not all of the memory-monitoring differences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Learning of a complex arithmetic skill in dementia: further evidence for a dissociation between compilation and production.

An amnesic Alzheimer's Disease patient was tested on his ability to learn an algorithm to square two-digit numbers. The results indicated a dissociation in the patient's ability to execute the individual steps of the algorithm and his ability to combine the steps of the algorithm, the former accounting for almost all of the improvement in response time. The results are discussed in conjunction with findings from Charness et al. (1988) and Milberg et al. (1988) and suggest that skill learning in Alzheimer's Disease may be compromised due to an inability to combine individual steps of a procedure.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Learning of a complex arithmetic skill in amnesia: evidence for a dissociation between compilation and production.

Two patients with severe amnesia following rupture of anterior communicating artery aneurysms were able to learn a complex algorithm for mentally squaring two-digit numbers. Although both patients learned the algorithm at a similar rate, one patient's improvement was accounted for by savings in the steps of the algorithm. The other patient, however, showed little improvement in the steps while performance of the whole algorithm improved dramatically. Neither patient showed savings in the Hebb Digit Span procedure. The results suggested a dissociation between amnesics in their capacity to learn the constituent "productions" or steps of a skill and their capacity to organize those productions into a single coherent act.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Teaching an amnesic a complex cognitive skill.

G.P., a Korsakoff's amnesic, was able to learn an algorithm for squaring two-digit numbers mentally over a 7-day period at a rate comparable to that of age-matched controls. He failed to show normal positive transfer to specific problems or to specific numbers used in components of the task. He also exhibited slight improvement in simple naming speed, forward digit span, simple multiplication speed, but no apparent improvement for the recall of repeated supraspan digit strings. He was unable to state the algorithm he had learned to square two-digit numbers, though he could implement it successfully. The results suggest that the compilation of a skill may involve two dissociable components: composition and proceduralization, with the former, but not the latter, occurring at normal rates for Korsakoff's amnesics.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

The role of theories of cognitive aging: comment on Salthouse.

Cognitive models of aging ought, minimally, to simulate age effects for a broad range of tasks, and their underlying assumptions ought to be constrained by existing data on cognitive mechanisms. Salthouse's model (and other parallel distributed-processing network models) meets the first criterion better than it meets the second. Another weakness is in its inability to account for goal-directed behavior. Thus, models like that of Salthouse seem best suited to the description of automatic information processes such as recognition. I conclude that such models are best evaluated in competition with standard symbolic processing models. I introduce simulation of chess position recall by older and younger chess players and compare it with Salthouse's model.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Aging and skilled problem solving.

Information-processing models of problem solving too often are based on restrictive age ranges. On the other hand, gerontologists have investigated few problem-solving tasks and have rarely generated explicit models. As this article demonstrates, both fields can benefit by closer collaboration. One major issue in gerontology is whether aging is associated with irreversible decrement or developmental plasticity. If both processes occur, then an appropriate strategy for investigating aging is to equate age groups for molar problem-solving performance and search for differences in the underlying components. This strategy was adopted to examine the relation of age and skill to problem solving in chess. Chess players were selected to vary widely in age and skill such that these variables were uncorrelated. Problem-solving and memory tasks were administered. Skill level was the only significant predictor for accuracy in both a choose-a-move task and a speeded end-game evaluation task. Age (negatively) and skill (positively) jointly determined performance in an unexpected recall task. Efficient chunking in recall was positively related to skill, though negatively related to age. Recognition confidence, though not accuracy, was negatively related to age. Thus despite age-related declines in encoding and retrieval of information, older players match the problem-solving performance of equivalently skilled younger players. Apparently, they can search the problem space more efficiently, as evidenced by taking less time to select an equally good move. Models of chess skill that stress that role of encoding efficiency, as indexed by chunking in recall, need to be modified to account for performance over the life span.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Visual short-term memory and aging in chess players.

Young (M = 20 years) and older (M = 54 years) equally skilled chessplayers reconstructed slides of chess diagrams shown for 1, 2, and 4 sec either immediately or following 15 sec of interpolated processing. Recall was more accurate for younger players, with the gap widening as viewing time increased. Interpolated processing decreased accuracy and increased retrieval time equally in the two groups. Measures of chunking indicated no age-related differences. These results imply that there is an age-related deficit in encoding but not retrieval for visual short-term memory. Since young and old were affected equivalently by interpolated processing, it appears likely that they have similar memory consolidation functions. Since the players were equally skilled, the results contradict the view that skill in chess derives primarily from encoding ability.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Age-related changes in perceptual and psychomotor performance: implications for engineering design.

Increased age is associated with declines in perceptual and psychomotor performance. We review several surveys of health and disability that provide functional descriptions on population trends in vision, hearing, fitness, mobility, and agility that complement laboratory studies of perceptual threshold functions. Women report and exhibit significantly greater disability than men (the exceptions being disabilities associated with hearing and flexibility), with the disability progression accelerating with age. For the growing proportion of older adults in the labor force, visual improvements can be achieved through improved lighting, increased size of visual detail, and glare avoidance. For hearing, restricting the frequency of sounds to the 1000- to 2000-Hz range, minimizing background noise, and eliminating reverberation seem prudent. For the retired population, emphasis should be placed on minimizing disability by promoting greater use of assistive devices and environmental redesign. Future laboratory studies of perceptual and psychomotor functions should attempt to sample more representatively and target underrepresented groups of older adults. New field studies are needed to bridge the gap between survey self-reports and laboratory studies and to determine the cost and benefits of redesign.

Aged↗