As you know, this blog treats the same subjects over and over again. We are spiraling around and around. And every spiral brings us a bit closer to those very subjects. People that visit this blog only periodically, might even think that we just move around in circles. But that is only superficial.
We talked about narratives, mumbling chess players and chess vision over and over again. And every time a bit of new knowledge has been added. The very fact that logical reasoning brings up the same subjects time and again, is a clear evidence that we are on the right track. The diary function of this blog has been a great help to stay on track.
I formulated some specific flaw as follows: I see that my queen is protected, I see that my queen becomes a target of a discovered attack, I have forgotten that my queen is protected.
Everything I know and have learned, is of no use when it is stored in Short Term Memory only during looking at a position. I have learned to recognize wether a queen is protected, and I can do it fast. But that is of no use when I have forgotten the very fact when I need it. The question is simple: how can I unlock the full potential of my experience that is already accumulated over the years? Answer: by making use of the LTM instead.
The narrative in the form of a little piece of chess logic might well be the glue to stitch the moves together. Causing the things that system I is throwing up are stored in LTM in stead of STM.
System I is only semi intelligent. It can bring you perfectly to your office. Even when you intended to go to France for a holiday.
When I try to solve a chess problem, I often leave it over to system I. But since it is only semi intelligent, it tends to wander around when a certain complexity is exceeded. Bringing you to the office when you wanted to go to France.
It has become evident that system II must supervise system I. It is my best guess that a narrative consisting of a little chess logic is the best way to do so. It is all trivial and simple, actually.
So I'm going to try this again. But now with a far more clear idea of what I want to accomplish.
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Tempo said:
ReplyDelete"I see that my queen is protected, I see that my queen becomes a target of a discovered attack, I have forgotten that my queen is protected."
The well known bottleneck of the STM. I think it might be bypassed partially by having the protekted queen already in the LTM before you even see the puzzle ;)
Its Board Vision, this : queen at xy is protectet by the piece a at x'y' needs to be already ( chunked ) in the LTM
" I think it might be bypassed partially by having the protected queen already in the LTM before you even see the puzzle"
DeleteWe already have. It is retrieved to STM when attention falls on the right spot. That happens when "I see that my queen is protected". That is a retrieved chunk.
But when system II is snoring, that fact goes by 7unnoticed. System II should reinforce the retrieved memory. Which stores it anew in LTM, or maybe some MTM or something, is my guess. but now in relation to the position.
As a child, I could remember every game I played. Until the next game, then it was erased from memory. I guess we have some kind of working memory or in between memory where this is stored. Or maybe it is stored in LTM too, but is there just an intelligent algorithm for erasing memories.
DeleteBoard<->STM<->LTM is a critical factor, i wonder what type of exercise would improve the quality and speed of these interactions. There are exercises of this type: you see a position and there is a (short) line given, you have to answer questions about the position after that line ( or solve the tactic after this line ).
DeleteNice little book with famous games
The Search for Chess Mastery: Chess Vision (English Edition) Kindle Edition Stephen Ward
Questions are for example:
5.4a: How many squares can Black’s King move to? · 5.4b: How many times is Black’s Nd7 attacked and defended? 5.4c: How many ways does White have to check Black’s King?
When you meet someone who invites you for a chess tournament at December 28th, and you are eager to go, you simply store it in your LTM without further ado. You don't need spaced repetition to remember it. When the tournament is over, you will soon forget the details of the invitation.
ReplyDeleteThe criterium for storing a fact in LTM is that you deem it as important.
I deem the fact that my queen is protected as not important enough to store in LTM (apparently). Hence that won't happen.
But when I make that fact playing a role in a little narrative, the fact gains in importancy. Maybe enough to store it in LTM. A bare fact is not important. But a fact that plays a role in a chain of events, suddenly becomes more important.
Visualization of a variation becomes way more easy with the aid of a narrative, I have seen. That seems to indicate that good visualization skills depend on storage in LTM too. Not the beforehand type of LTM storage, but the LTM storage on the fly type.
ReplyDeleteThere are many factors which makes it easier to memorize things. Which one can we influence?
ReplyDeleteTo make everything important.. not so easy
exercise memorization can help and can be done
Visualization becomes easy wit a narrative, then you have some chunks in your background, finding a narrative gets easy when you are good in vizualisation, visualization = storing things in your ltm
"There are many factors which makes it easier to memorize things. Which one can we influence?
DeleteTo make everything important.. not so easy"
When system I is in the lead, you are basically "asleep". System I is semi intelligent. It imitates intelligence. You are on autopilot. Your intelligence is on autopilot. When you are trying to build a narrative, system II must be awake. It can only function when at least some light of consciousness, aka attention, is shining. I guess this light, or attention, is already enough to impress the facts into ltm.
The trial and error mode I tend to dwell in, is half of the time system I on autopilot.
By forcing yourself to pour the position into a narrative, you have to turn off the autopilot. Which means that system I is no longer allowed to be in the lead.
The mind LOVES narratives! So, one possible way to look at narratives is as an application of the Method of Loci. Each "stage" of each narrative becomes one of the "rooms" in which "memories" reside. The "story" is easy to recall because it is a coherent "picture".
ReplyDeleteOr, if you prefer, think of each part of a "story" as an individual chunk, and the overall "story" as a collection of related chunks. The more "stores" we know, the stronger our ability to visualize and recognize patterns.
The cool thing is that our memory can hold an enormous number of stories (chunks)!
"So, one possible way to look at narratives is as an application of the Method of Loci. Each "stage" of each narrative becomes one of the "rooms" in which "memories" reside. The "story" is easy to recall because it is a coherent "picture". "
DeleteThat is what I was trying to say.
and how can wie put this queen-status of beeing protected into a narrative?
ReplyDeleteusually only interesting if attacked by a queen, i guess that might be a reason to forget it quick , so it would be necessary to realize the potential change of the queens status "being attacked by queen".. that sounds to artificial.. except if the queen was already in the status of "being x-ray attackt by the other queen". But ... i think thats way to complicated.
we know that a master can memorize a position within 4 sec with all pieces and all statusflags, not much time to find a "story" for each piece
Here's an example of "narrative" assisting memory. It is taken from The Search for Chess Mastery: Chess Vision, Volume 1), Introduction {See Note 1 below}. I will give four "short stories" first, followed by the "connecting narrative" which binds these four "stories" into a single "chunk." As you read through the four "short stories", try to "see" if you automatically recognize the "connecting narrative" BEFORE you read it.
ReplyDelete1. "White on the right."
2. Rooks, Knights, Bishops are ordered from the outside (left and right) going in.
3. Queen and King are side by side, with the Queen on color.
4. Pawns are placed in front of each piece.
The "connecting narrative" is:
Set up the pieces for a chess game.
There (obviously) are some additional preconditions. You must "know" the names of the pieces (Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, King). You must "know" that "White on the right" refers to the board, with lighter colored squares in the right corners (from each player's perspective). You must "know" that the pieces (Rooks, Knights, Bishops, Queens, Kings) are set up on the outermost row of squares on each side of the board, facing the opponent's pieces/side of the board. Once these individual "stories" (or chunks or "rules") have been assimilated into LTM as a single narrative/chunk, you can always set up the board correctly WITHOUT CONSCIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT IT. All that is needed is for someone to suggest playing "a game of chess" and the retrieval of ALL the associated "rules" for setting up the board immediately come back into play, without any list or step-by-step process.
The fascinating thing is how quickly this set of "rules" gets incorporated into LTM, without really consciously trying to memorize them. After a very small number of games, the player just "knows" all these little "rules" and applies them automatically. ALL of them come back into consciousness concurrently and rapidly.
This underscores my assertion that we don't really know what "chunks" really are.
There are some "Useful Techniques" provided in the original edition that do not appear to be in the second edition. The use of five 4x4-squares (1 for each quadrant of the board, and 1 for the center squares) for visualizing the board is very similar to the process I described (in a previous comment) how I trained "board sight" to be able to play blindfold chess.
Note 1:
There is another version of the book: The Search for Chess Mastery: Chess Vision: Checkmate Edition. The original was published in 2012, and had "20 chess masterpieces." The Checkmate Edition was published in 2013 and has 379 games won by World Champions. The Checkmate Edition has 15 chapters, each one devoted to a World Champion. Chapter 1 (Steinitz) requires you to mentally visualize 1 move prior to looking for the checkmate, Chapter 2 (Lasker) requires 2 moves prior to looking for the checkmate, and so forth; the 15th Chapter (Anand) requires visualizing 15 moves prior to looking for the mate.
Please note that I do not own either edition of this book. My information is taken from the Amazon description and the "Look inside" feature. I think I will (eventually) purchase the Checkmate Edition.
I have both books in the kindle version, they are part of my visualisation training
ReplyDelete