The principle of activity specificity in episodic memory

The effect of chess skill, age, and conditions for memorization on the efficiency of the recall of sequences of opening chess moves was studied. Thirty-nine chess players of different skill levels (from category 2 to grandmaster) and ages (from 17 to 81 years old) were divided into four groups (ELO > 2000 before and after the age of 40; ELO < 2000 before and after the age of 40). They were asked to remember the sequences of moves under three conditions (passive perception, use of imagination, physical generation of moves) and to recall (reproduce) the sequences by making the moves. It turned out that in the passive-perception condition the younger chess players, on the one hand, and the more highly skilled players, on the other, recalled the moves significantly better than did the other groups. Also, in almost all the groups of players the efficiency of memory grew as the condition for memorization and that for reproduction converged, with the highest growth rate found among chess players older than 40 years with ELO > 2000. The current memory of the chess experts was to a greater extent mediated by opening schemes and knowledge than was that of the intermediate players. A hypothesis about the activity specificity of the coding in episodic memory was confirmed and concretized.