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Chess in Education Research Summary

Playing Chess: A Study of Problem-Solving Skills  by Philip Rifner

Research on the Benefits of Chess For Kids
Compiled by Dr. Robert Ferguson
(the original text has not been altered only organized to be easier to read)

This summary has drawn freely from several sources including Dr. Tim Redman’s Chess as Education: Character Assassination or Life of the Mind and Robert Ferguson’s doctoral dissertation. The following studies will be reviewed briefly.

Chess and Aptitudes  by Albert Frank

Chess and Cognitive Development  by Johan Christiaen

Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Through Chess  by Robert Ferguson

Chess as a Way to Teach Thinking  by Dianne Horgan

The Development of Reasoning and Memory Through Chess  by Robert Ferguson

The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores  by Stuart Margulies

Étude Comparative sur les Apprentissages en Mathématiques 5e Année  by Louise Gaudreau

John Artise in  Chess and Education  states:
 "Visual stimuli tend to improve memory more than any other stimuli; . . . 
chess is definitely an excellent memory exerciser

the effects of which are transferable to other subjects where memory is necessary."

 The following studies offer some hard evidence to support the claims of Artise and others.

The Zaire study,
Chess and Aptitudes,
lead by Dr. Albert Frank at the University Protestant School (now Lisanga School) in Kisangani, Zaire,
was conducted during the 1973-74 school year.
                         Frank wanted to find out whether the ability to learn chess is a function of


  a) spatial aptitude,
     b) perceptive speed,
c) reasoning,        
d) creativity, or     
       e) general intelligence.
 

Secondly, Frank wondered whether learning chess could influence the development of abilities in one or more of the above five types.
To what extent does chess playing contribute to the development of certain abilities?
If it can be proven that it does, then the introduction of chess into the programs of secondary schools would be recommended.

The first hypothesis was confirmed.
 There was a significant correlation between the ability to play chess well, and spatial, numerical, administrative-directional, and paper work abilities. Other correlations obtained were all positive, but only the above were significantly so. This finding tends to show that ability in chess is not due to the presence in an individual of only one or two abilities but that a large number of aptitudes all work together in chess.
 Chess utilizes all the abilities of an individual.

The second hypothesis was confirmed for two aptitudes.
 It was found that learning chess had a positive influence on the development of both numerical and verbal aptitudes.
 

Chess and Cognitive Development
was directed by Johan Christiaen.
 The research was conducted during the 1974-76 school years at the Assenede Municipal School in Gent, Belgium.

The trial group consisted of 40 fifth grade students (average age 10.6 years), who were divided randomly into two groups, experimental and
control, of  20 students each. All students were given a battery of tests that included Piaget’s tests for cognitive development and the PMS tests.

 The tests were administered to all of the students at the end of fifth grade and again at the end of sixth grade. The experimental group received
42 one-hour chess lessons using Jeugdschaak (Chess for Youths) as a textbook.

A first analysis of the investigation results compared the trial and control groups using ANOVA. The results showed significant differences
between the two groups in favor of the chess players. The academic results at the end of fifth grade were significant at the .01 level. The
results at the end of sixth grade were significant at the .05 level.

Dr. Gerard Dullea (1982) states that Dr. Christiaen’s study needs support, extension, and confirmation. In regard to the research, he also maintains:
" we have scientific support for what we have known all along--chess makes kids smarter!"
 (Chess Life, November, p. 16)
 

Developing Critical and Creative Thinking through Chess,
Ferguson’s first study, expanded the support Dullea referenced. Dr. Ferguson’s ESEA Title IV-C federally funded research project was
 approved for three years (1979-82). It was extended for one school year (82-83) at local expense for a combined total of four years. The
primary goal of the study was to provide challenging experiences that would stimulate the development of critical and creative thinking.

The project was an investigation of students identified as mentally gifted.
 All participants were students in the Bradford Area School District in grades 7 through 9.
 The primary independent variables reviewed were the chess treatment, the computer treatment, and all non-chess treatments combined.
 Each group met once a week for 32 weeks to pursue its interest area.

The first aspect assessed in this study is that of critical thinking. The average annual increase for the chess group was
 17.3%
as measured by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal.
 The second aspect tested is that of creative thinking. While the entire chess group made superior gains over the other groups in all areas of creativity, the dimension that demonstrated the most significant growth was
 originality.
 Several researchers have found that gains in originality are usual for those receiving creativity training, whereas gains in fluency are often slight or nonexistent. The fact that the chess group’s gains in fluency were significant beyond the .05 level when compared to the national norms
 is an important discovery.
 

Learning to Think Project,
 the Venezuela experiment,
tested whether chess can be used to develop intelligence of children as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

Both males and females showed an increase of intelligence quotient (IQ) after less than a year of studying chess
 in the systematic way adopted. Most students showed a significant gain after a minimum of 4.5 months. The general conclusion is that
 
 chess methodologically taught is an incentive system sufficient to accelerate the increase of  IQ
 
 in elementary age children of both sexes at all socio-economic levels. It appears that this study also includes very interesting results
 regarding transfer of chess thinking to other areas of study. (FIDE Report, 1984, p. 74)
 

B.F. Skinner, an influential contemporary psychologist, wrote:

 "There is no doubt that this project in its total form will be considered as
one of the greatest social experiments of this century" (Tudela, 1987).

 Because of the success of the study, the chess program was greatly expanded.
 Starting with the 1988-89 school year, chess lessons were conducted in all of Venezuela’s schools (Linder, 1990, p. 165).
 Chess is now part of the curricula at thousands of schools in nearly 30 countries around the world (Linder, p. 164).
 

Dianne Horgan has conducted several studies using chess as the independent variable.
 In "Chess as a Way to Teach Thinking,"
 Horgan (1987) used a sample of 24 elementary children (grades 1 through 6) and 35 junior high and high school students. Grade and skill rating
were correlated (r=.48). She found elementary players were among the top ranked players and
 concluded that children could perform a highly complex cognitive task as well as most adults.

Horgan found that while adults progress to expertise from a focus on details to a more global focus,
 children seem to begin with a more global, intuitive emphasis.
 She deduced:
 "This may be a more efficient route to expertise as evidenced by the ability of preformal operational children to learn chess well enough to compete successfully with adults" (Horgan, p. 10).
She notes that young children can be taught to think clearly and that learning these skills early in life can greatly benefit later intellectual development.
 Former U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell agrees.
 In his book Your Child’s Intellect, Bell encourages some knowledge of chess as a way to develop a preschooler’s intellect and academic readiness (Bell, 1982, pp. 178-179).
 
 

Development of Reasoning and Memory through Chess,
during the 1987-88  all students in a sixth grade self-contained classroom at M.J. Ryan School were required to participate in chess lessons
and play games. None of the pupils had previously played chess. This experiment was more intensified than Ferguson’s other studies because
students played chess daily over the course of the project. The program continued from September 21, 1987 through May 31, 1988.

The dependent variables were the gains on the Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS)
Memory subtest (p<0.001) and the Verbal Reasoning subtest (p<0.002) from the California Achievement Tests battery.
 The differences from the pre and post tests were measured statistically using the test of significance.
 Gains on the tests were compared to national norms as well as within the treatment group.
 

The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores: District Nine Chess Program Second Year Report,
Margulies’ (1991) evaluates the reading performance of 53 elementary pupils who
participated in the chess program and compares their results to 1118 non participants.

Dr. Margulies concluded that chess participation enhances reading performance.
 The results of the paired t-test were significant beyond the .01 level.
 The results of the Chi Square test for the chess players in the computer-enhanced and high-scoring non participants were significant
at the .01 level. Margulies’ study conclusively proved that pupils who learned chess
 enjoyed a significant increase in their reading skills.
 Inside Chess (February 21, 1994, p. 3) states:
 "The Margulies Study is one of the strongest arguments to finally prove
 what hundreds of teachers knew all along...chess is a learning tool."
 

Étude Comparative sur les Apprentissages en Mathématiques 5e Année
by Louise Gaudreau (30 June 1992)
 has recently been translated and offers some of the most exciting news yet about chess in education.
 The study took place in the province of New Brunswick from July 1989 through June of 1992.

Three groups totalling 437 fifth graders were tested in this research.
The control group (Group A) received the traditional math course throughout the study.
Group B received a traditional math curriculum in first grade and thereafter an enriched program with chess and problem solving instruction.
 The third group (Group C) received the chess enriched math curriculum beginning in the first grade.

There were no significant differences among the groups as far as basic calculations on the standardized test; however,
 there were statistically significant differences for Group B and C in the problem solving portion of the test
 (21.46% difference in favour of Group C over the Control Group)
 and on the comprehension section
 (12.02% difference in favour of Group C over the Control Group).
 In addition, Group C’s problem solving scores increased from an average 62% to 81.2%!
 

 Playing Chess: A Study of Problem-Solving Skills in Students with Average and Above Average Intelligence by Philip Rifner
was conducted during the 1991-1992 school term.
 The study sought to determine whether middle school students who learned general problem solving skills in one domain
could apply them in a different domain. The training task involved learning to play chess,
 and the transfer task required poetic analysis. The study was conducted in two parts.

Results of the quasi-experiment indicated treatment effects only for the transfer task.
 Results of the quantitative-descriptive study indicated treatment effects for all variables among gifted subjects
but only on the number of methods used for students of average ability. Data indicated that inter-domain transfer can be achieved if teaching for transfer is an instructional goal and that transfer occurs more readily and to a greater extent among students with above average ability.
 

Why does chess have this impact?

Why did chess players score higher on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking as well as the
 Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal?
 Briefly, there appear to be at least seven significant factors:

 1. Chess accommodates all modality strengths.
 2. Chess provides a far greater quantity of problems for practice.
 3. Chess offers immediate punishments and rewards for problem solving.
 
 4. Chess creates a pattern or thinking system that, when used faithfully, breeds success. The chess playing students had become
     accustomed to looking for more and different alternatives, which resulted in higher scores in fluency and originality.

 5. Competition. Competition fosters interest, promotes mental alertness, challenges all students, and elicits the highest levels of achievement.
      (Stephan, 1988).

 6. A learning environment organized around games has a positive affect on students’ attitudes toward learning. This affective dimension acts as
     a facilitator of cognitive achievement (Allen & Main, 1976). Instructional gaming is one of the most motivational tools in the good teacher’s
     repertoire. Children love games. Chess motivates them to become willing problem solvers and spend hours quietly immersed in logical
     thinking. These same young people often cannot sit still for fifteen minutes in the traditional classroom.

 7. Chess supplies a variety and quality of problems. As Langen (1992) states: "The problems that arise in the 70-90 positions
      of the average chess game are, moreover, new. Contexts are familiar, themes repeat, but game positions never do.
      This makes chess good grist for the problem-solving mill."
 

         

Use it or lose it.
ELEANOR HALL
Friday, 20 June , 2003  reporter: John Shovelan

Exercising the brain lowers dementia risk: study

 that's the message from researchers who have spent 21 years studying ways to halt the
onset of dementia, and have published their results in the New England Journal of Medicine.


Doctors at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York's Bronx district have found that you can significantly lower the
 likelihood you'll suffer from Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia if your engage in activities like playing chess or a musical instrument.

Professor Joe Verghese has been telling our Correspondent, John Shovelan,
that this sort of mental activity can reduce the risk of dementia by as much as 70 %.

JOE VERGHESE: What we found was increasing levels of participation in cognitive stimulating activities such as
 playing chess or checkers, bridge or reading or writing
was associated with a reduced risk of dementia over this follow-up period.

 
We studied six different activities and among the activities that showed a significant effect were
 reading, playing a musical instrument and playing board games such as chess or checkers.

Doing crossword puzzles showed a trend towards reduced risk but the association wasn't significant according to our analysis.

 if in fact those habits are exercising your mind, is that right?
 
JOHN SHOVELAN: So what you seem to have seen is that biological deterioration can be overcome by your habits,
JOE VERGHESE: Yes. It's almost similar to, you know, the physical state where if you exercise and build up muscles then you're more
                                 resistant to injury and other illnesses. It looks like if you exercise your brain then you are also resistant to the effects
                                 of dementing illnesses such as Alzheimer's.
JOHN SHOVELAN: And is there a reason why, is there something that occurs physically in the brain as a result of chess, or crosswords,
                                  or playing a musical instrument that you can point to and say yes there is an activity in the brain that would not occur
                                  if you don't exercise the brain with those activities?              
 
JOE VERGHESE: Yes. I mean, there's probably two possible explanations, probably even more, but the two main explanations for our
                                 finding. One is to do with something called a cognitive reserve theory, which is that by engaging in these activities
                                 you're building a buffer or a reserve in the brain by increasing the connections between the cells or promoting new
                                 cell growth, and this way, when you do get the disease, you're resistant to the effects of the disease for a few more
                                 years. Then you only manifest the disease say three or four years later

The other possibility, like you suggested, could be that the brain is plastic and if you challenge the brain and stress the brain
by these mental activities you lay down new connections and even, you know,
promote growth of new cells in areas which are affected by Alzheimer's disease.
 
ELEANOR HALL: Alzheimer's Researcher, Professor Joe Verghese speaking to our North America Correspondent, John Shovelan.
Health & Science - Experts say seniors ought to have fun

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY Seniors who dance the night away, play bridge or a musical instrument may be doing more than just having fun: A new study suggests that these active seniors may be warding off the risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer's
The study, out today in The New England Journal of Medicine, adds to the scientific evidence suggesting that mentally challenging activities may offer protection against Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disease that afflicts 4 million Americans.
Seniors can greatly cut their risk of dementia by engaging in various activities several times a week*. A few examples

Reading - 35% reduced risk

Playing a musical instrument - 69%

Dancing frequently - 76%

Source: NEJM.
*Note: Compared with people who rarely participate in these activities.

 

Joe Verghese and his colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx studied 469 people age 75 and older that did not have any sign of forgetfulness at the study's start. The researchers asked the recruits how often they participated in leisure activities such as chess or crossword puzzles. They also kept track of the people who developed mild forgetfulness or full-blown dementia during the study.

The team discovered that the most active people overall had a 63% lower risk of developing dementia compared with people who said they hardly ever played cards, danced or did other such activities.

People who played the hardest gained the most: For example, seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a 47% lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week.

Dancing also offered a hedge against dementia although in general physical activity did not. For example, the researchers found no protection associated with playing golf or tennis. But just a few seniors in the study played golf or tennis so that finding may not hold true, Verghese cautions.

Any mentally challenging activity, like learning a new dance step, might spur the brain to establish new connections or perhaps to grow new brain cells, says Gary Small at the University of California-Los Angeles. The extra brainpower may compensate for any loss of brain cells because of a disease process such as Alzheimer's.

The "use it or lose it" theory of successful aging has yet to be proven scientifically, says Bill Thies of the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. Still this is one time the experts aren't waiting for proof: Thies, Small and Verghese all recommend building fun, mentally challenging activities into daily life.

Having fun won't hurt and it might ultimately offer a hedge against Alzheimer's, Small says:

Keep your brain active and you may protect yourself against future memory loss."

 

 

Checkmate mated to brain use
WebPosted Thu Aug 9 15:02:12 2001

KONSTANZ, GERMANY - Chess masters master chess differently than amateurs.
 According to researchers in Germany, grandmasters and amateurs use different parts of their brains when playing the game.

Using a new magnetic imaging technique, scientists at the University of Konstanz were able to study chess players' brains in action.

The study tested 20 amateur and grandmaster chess players playing against a
computer. Only the grandmasters were able to beat or even draw the machine.

And to do it, they fell back on their prior experiences. Professor Thomas Elbert who led the study says the grandmasters used
 "expert memory"
apparently recalling chunks of remembered games. Amateurs on the other hand, spent more time analyzing
moves they hadn't seen before. To do this they used an area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe.

I've seen this somewhere before

The study says chess grandmasters study and practice for at least 10 years to learn more than
100,000 patterns. So they can recognize the key elements in a situation more quickly than amateur players.

When briefly shown a board on which a game is in progress, grandmasters can usually recall the positions of a quarter of
the pieces. Amateurs average only around five per cent correct recall. But when the pieces on the board are randomly arranged
 – and are no longer part of a game pattern –
the masters' performance drops to match the amateurs'.

The results are presented in the journal Nature. Written by CBC News Online staff