Super interesting! I have some follow-up thoughts to this.
On the one hand, it seems that this is a case of “having” more working memory.
On the other hand, it might be a case of more experience allowing you to filter out irrelevant things and, allowing more working memory to focus on the things that matter.
A classical example of the latter point is when novices learn to play chess. In a typical training session, they will be presented with a position, and be asked to propose a move. They will take a moment, then propose a move that loses a queen in a totally obvious way, and when challenged, they will take a moment and confirm that “oh, yeah, that loses a queen”. Typically a novice is overwhelmed by the details of the position, perhaps still remembering how the pieces move, and have no sense of which moves are important and which moves should be ignored. As a result, they can’t do “basic” one-step lookahead to see what countermoves the opponent has. Their working memory is too overloaded with all of the possibilities on the board.
This gets resolved with practice, drills, and experience. Eventually the hind-brain simply “surfaces” the information “that square is controlled by an enemy bishop”, and in many cases will not even suggest the move that would hazard the queen, it won’t even get loaded into conscious attention.
EDIT: Building on this, it’s super interesting to watch Grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura play games live on stream, and comment on their thought process. Yes, they calculate long lines, sometimes branching, but as they talk, partially distracted, they never consider bad moves, they’re always analyzing the top moves recommended by the computer.
Super interesting! I have some follow-up thoughts to this.
On the one hand, it seems that this is a case of “having” more working memory.
On the other hand, it might be a case of more experience allowing you to filter out irrelevant things and, allowing more working memory to focus on the things that matter.
A classical example of the latter point is when novices learn to play chess. In a typical training session, they will be presented with a position, and be asked to propose a move. They will take a moment, then propose a move that loses a queen in a totally obvious way, and when challenged, they will take a moment and confirm that “oh, yeah, that loses a queen”. Typically a novice is overwhelmed by the details of the position, perhaps still remembering how the pieces move, and have no sense of which moves are important and which moves should be ignored. As a result, they can’t do “basic” one-step lookahead to see what countermoves the opponent has. Their working memory is too overloaded with all of the possibilities on the board.
This gets resolved with practice, drills, and experience. Eventually the hind-brain simply “surfaces” the information “that square is controlled by an enemy bishop”, and in many cases will not even suggest the move that would hazard the queen, it won’t even get loaded into conscious attention.
EDIT: Building on this, it’s super interesting to watch Grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura play games live on stream, and comment on their thought process. Yes, they calculate long lines, sometimes branching, but as they talk, partially distracted, they never consider bad moves, they’re always analyzing the top moves recommended by the computer.