title: Chess masters show a hallmark of face processing with chess.
abstract: Face processing has several distinctive hallmarks that researchers have attributed either to face-specific mechanisms or to extensive experience distinguishing faces. Here, we examined the face-processing hallmark of selective attention failure--as indexed by the congruency effect in the composite paradigm--in a domain of extreme expertise: chess. Among 27 experts, we found that the congruency effect was equally strong with chessboards and faces. Further, comparing these experts with recreational players and novices, we observed a trade-off: Chess expertise was positively related to the congruency effect with chess yet negatively related to the congruency effect with faces. These and other findings reveal a case of expertise-dependent, facelike processing of objects of expertise and suggest that face and expert-chess recognition share common processes.
authors.affiliation: School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road, GR 4.1, Richardson, TX 75080, USA. aboggan@utdallas.edu
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Boggan
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bartlett
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Krawczyk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005150:Facial Hemiatrophy; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology