This is the second part of a three-part series of articles investigating scientific research on the value of chess as a tool to aid cognitive development. In this part, the study by Fried and Ginsburg will be discussed (The effect of learning to play chess on cognitive, perceptual and emotional development in children. Unpublished document available from the US Chess Federation).
Fried and Ginsburg study
A later study by Steven Fried and Norman Ginsburg expanded on Christiaen’s study by attempting to
“… to identify the specific cognitive, perceptual-motor and emotional gains produced by learning chess and which may explain the improvement in performance, as demonstrated in the Christiaen study.”
The Fried and Ginsburg study used three measures to assess cognitive abilities: the block design subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Revised (WISC-R), the image completion subtest of the WISC-R, as an indicator of visual awareness in detail. ; and the Survey of school attitudes, as a measure of consideration by the school. The study design used three treatment conditions: one group received chess instruction twice a week for eighteen weeks, another attended a fortnightly ‘rap’ session during the same period, while the third group acted as a control group. no contact.
The study results failed to clearly identify any specific areas of significant differentiation between the groups. However, the taste for completing the picture showed a trend in the expected direction with the chess group with the highest score, the counseling group then following the non-contact control group. In the other two test categories, significant gender-related differences were observed within the chess group. The authors hypothesize that gender-related factors such as male competitiveness and aggressiveness are involved, but admit that more research is required to explore these factors.
The “Value of Chess as a Learning Aid, Part III” will discuss another study that provides compelling evidence that chess makes your children smarter. It will be available shortly on this website.