He found that only some of the master chess players could play from memory and a few could play multiple games simultaneously without looking at the boards. Binet wanted to know if blindfold chess players were doing the same thing. The ancient Greeks developed the art of mnemonics, memory tricks that relied on visualization to remember large amounts of detail.Typically, a mnemonist would “deposit” difficult-to-remember information into imagined compartments, seats, or rooms. This notion was supported by all the memory literature and science that depicted memory as being visually based. Binet concluded that the memory proposed by the master varied in different mnemonic forms (techniques used to retain information into a form the brain can understand better).īinet theorized that chess masters had an “inner mirror (miroir interieur),” which would reflect back to them, move by move, each successive configuration of the chess board. Binet argued that an amateur chess player could never play blindfold chess, no matter how good his memory was. He found that only chess masters were able to play chess successfully without seeing the board and intermediate players found it impossible to play a game of blindfold chess. He was interested in the cognitive faculties of chess masters and thought that master chess depended upon the phenomenological qualities of visual memory (photographic memory). In 1894, Binet had done a series of experiments to see how well chess players played when blindfolded. Despite his suggestion that an excellent chess player is innate (he wrote that “One becomes a good player but one is born an excellent player”), he observed that training the memory daily encouraged the maintenance and/or the development of recall performance. One of Binet’s conclusions concerning human calculators and chess masters was the importance of training and experience. Binet noted that the abilities of human calculators started around age 4, whereas the ability to play strong chess started around age 11. On the other hand, he found that some mathematicians played chess, but few were strong players. After conducting interviews with a large number of leading chess players, he found that over 90% of them were good mental calculators and had good memories. In 1893, Binet made a study of the connection between mathematics and chess. Human calculation was largely a matter of auditory and visual mnemonics. Furthermore, their aptitude was developed by exercise and was decreased by non-usage. Usually, the familiarity with figures was at the expense of general intelligence. Binet then extended his observation on the exceptionality of the talented through the study of individuals presenting extraordinary memory in other areas, such as the performance of chess players while playing blindfolded several chess games.įor Binet, mathematical prodigies formed a natural class, and their ability was independent of hereditary or environment. Binet also attempted to explain the abilities of other exceptional calculators like Gauss, Ampere, Mondeuz, and Mangiamele. Binet interpreted Inaudi’s ability as an exceptional memory for numbers. He was able to mentally calculate numbers as high as 21 figures, add any 5 numbers with 6 figures, or square any 4-figure number. Inaudi could calculate at age 6, but could not read or write until age 20. In 1892, at the suggestion of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), Binet investigated the mental processes of mathematical prodigies and human calculators, focusing on exceptional mental calculators, such as Pericles Diamandi (born in 1868) and Jacques Inaudi (1867-1950), an Italian calculating prodigy who spent his childhood as a shepherd. He is considered the father of intelligence and the founder of French experimental psychology. He published roughly 200 books and articles on psychology. He also wrote the first work on the psychology of chess, though he was not a strong chess player. “Petite Bibliothèque Payot”.Alfred Edouard Louis Binet (1857-1911) was a French psychologist (he actually had a Law degree and taught himself psychology) who invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet-Simon scale (1905). allemande de 1893, et sur les 16e et 17e éd. Psychopathologie de la vie sexuelle (II) (trad. English trans James Strachey, 1949, London: Imago Publishing. “Petite Bibliothèque Payot”.Ĭharcot, J.-M., & Magnan, V. Le fétichisme dans l'amour (nouvelle édition de l'article paru originellement dans 2 numéros de la Revue philosophique, tome 24,1887, pp.
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