Champ versus Chump: Viewing an Opponent’s Face Engages Attention but Not Reward Systems

When we play competitive games, the opponents that we face act as predictors of the outcome of the game. For instance, if you are an average chess player and you face a Grandmaster, you anticipate a loss. Framed in a reinforcement learning perspective, our opponents can be thought of as predictors of rewards and punishments. The present study investigates whether facing an opponent would be processed as a reward or punishment depending on the level of difficulty the opponent poses. Participants played Rock, Paper, Scissors against three computer opponents while electroencephalographic (EEG) data was recorded. In a key manipulation, one opponent (HARD) was programmed to win most often, another (EASY) was made to lose most often, and the third (AVERAGE) had equiprobable outcomes of wins, losses, and ties. Through practice, participants learned to anticipate the relative challenge of a game based on the opponent they were facing that round. An analysis of our EEG data revealed that winning outcomes elicited a reward positivity relative to losing outcomes. Interestingly, our analysis of the predictive cues (i.e., the opponents’ faces) demonstrated that attentional engagement (P3a) was contextually sensitive to anticipated game difficulty. As such, our results for the predictive cue are contrary to what one might expect for a reinforcement model associated with predicted reward, but rather demonstrate that the neural response to the predictive cue was encoding the level of engagement with the opponent as opposed to value relative to the anticipated outcome.

The indexing of biography as a special genre or as historically documented text

The indexing of biography as a genre, per se, is reconsidered with respect to subject indexing in general and the histories of lives in particular. The index of a biography of the chess player Bobby Fischer is compared with the index of a history of chess at the height of the Cold War conflict in which Bobby Fischer was the central protagonist. Some received theory of the indexing of biographies is critiqued and challenged by practical comparisons. Indexing from a literary perspective is considered and contrasted with back-of-book indexing from an information retrieval standpoint.

Champ versus Chump: Viewing an Opponent’s Face Engages Attention but Not Reward Systems

When we play competitive games, the opponents that we face act as predictors of the outcome of the game. For instance, if you are an average chess player and you face a Grandmaster, you anticipate a loss. Framed in a reinforcement learning perspective, our opponents can be thought of as predictors of rewards and punishments. The present study investigates whether facing an opponent would be processed as a reward or punishment depending on the level of difficulty the opponent poses. Participants played Rock, Paper, Scissors against three computer opponents while electroencephalographic (EEG) data was recorded. In a key manipulation, one opponent (HARD) was programmed to win most often, another (EASY) was made to lose most often, and the third (AVERAGE) had equiprobable outcomes of wins, losses, and ties. Through practice, participants learned to anticipate the relative challenge of a game based on the opponent they were facing that round. An analysis of our EEG data revealed that winning outcomes elicited a reward positivity relative to losing outcomes. Interestingly, our analysis of the predictive cues (i.e., the opponents' faces) demonstrated that attentional engagement (P3a) was contextually sensitive to anticipated game difficulty. As such, our results for the predictive cue are contrary to what one might expect for a reinforcement model associated with predicted reward, but rather demonstrate that the neural response to the predictive cue was encoding the level of engagement with the opponent as opposed to value relative to the anticipated outcome.

Zakaj računalnik prekaša človeka v šahu v nogometu pa ne?

Modern information technology (IT), led by artificial intelligence, big data and robotics, have significant influence on our lives and work. Computer algorithms successfully solve logically complex problems, which are also a hard or even too hard nut to crack for humans. Years ago, we were stunned by the news that the computer had beaten the best chess player in the world. A similar thing happened with some challenging games, such as. GO. Many people were already asking themselves the question: What is left for a human being? A life in which we have to find ourselves even in new unpredictable situations is our ecosystem, which is anything but a well-defined game. In this game, IT is an important, sometimes indispensable, tool. The ways in which we operate are changing. That means also our professions. We are talking about job threats. We hear claims that “lower” jobs are more at risk. This is not necessarily true. E.g. the work of a waiter is very complex. It’s not just about food delivery. It's anything more. The work is also accompanied by possible unforeseen events between the waiters and the customer. It’s hard to imagine a robot being able to cope with such situations. On the other hand, the computer often surpasses the radiologist in analysing radiological images. But not always and everywhere. Because the patterns in the pictures can also be new unpredictable situations. For automatic diagnosis, if the algorithms achieve 95% accuracy is very good. They can be a good tool for humans. We know that 95% reliability is not enough for self-driving vehicles. It is therefore about the coexistence of man with computer algorithms, data and robots. In this connection, all jobs are changing. How we experience and survive these changes is primarily up to us humans.

Making the Automaton Speak

What might the eighteenth-century history of automata tell us about the relationships between voice, the human, machines and fiction? Given the rise in our daily lives of voice-operated ‘intelligent assistants’ at this time, the question is especially pertinent. By examining the eighteenth-century case of the speaking doll and the cultural values and desires that its representation in a 1784 pamphlet entitled The Speaking Figure, and the Automaton Chess-Player, Exposed and Detected reveals, this chapter will provide a historical framework for probing how the experiences and possibilities of artificial voice shed light on our deep investments in the notion of voice as a vital sign of being ‘real’ as humans.

PEDAGOGICAL CONCEPT OF TECHNICAL AND TACTICAL TRAINING OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN CHESS SPORT

Aim. The purpose of the study is to determine the systemic directions and priority ways and develop the stages and technologies for technical and tactical training of people with disabilities for achieving the effective results in chess sport in the long-time perspective. Materials and methods. The empirical study of technical and tactical training conducted in 2005–2015 involved 1275 persons at the age from 10 to 72 years with musculoskeletal disorders, hearing or visual impairments. The criteria for assessing the effectiveness of technical and tactical training were diagnostic questionnaires, specialized chess tests, as well as the following psychodiagnostic techniques: the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI); well-being, activity, mood test (“SAN”-test); The Short Form-36; the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Results. The survey revealed the actual factors hindering effective sports training: difficulties in reaching the training sites, lack of information about chess sections and Internet availability. The upward trend in the technical and tactical training (TTT) dynamics is confirmed by the growth of results due to implementing strategy and tactics – up to 31 %; the development of operational thinking – up to 25 %; recent memory – up to 27 %, evaluative function – up to 31 %. As a result of sports training 72 chess players achieved the ranks and titles of The International Chess Federation, including the title of “International Chess Grand Master”. Conclusion. The pedagogical concept realized by a set of standard and innovative means, methods, organizational forms of adaptive TTT along with psychological and pedagogical support and comprehensive supervision allows to effectively transform the intellectual potential of a chess player into a sports result.

,,Er hätte am liebsten ununterbrochen gespielt“. : Schach in Elias Canettis Roman ,,Die Blendung“

Der Beitrag untersucht die Bedeutung des Schachspiels in Elias Canettis Roman Die Blendung zum einen auf der Ebene der historischen und sozialen Kontexte, in denen der Schachspieler Siegfried Fischer im Wien des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts steht. Er fokussiert zum anderen die Bedeutung des Schachspiels auf Handlungsebene. Denn Siegfried Fischer – genannt Fischerle – überträgt seine strategischen Fähigkeiten im Schach auf die ihn umgebende Welt und bringt so Peter Kien ,Zug um Zug‘ um dessen Reichtum.The article examines the significance of chess in Elias Canetti’s novel Die Blendung in the historical and social context of early 20th century Vienna. It further focuses on the function of chess within the novel: The actor and chess player Siegfried Fischer – called Fischerle – transfers his strategic skills from chess to his surroundings, thus depriving Peter Kien of his wealth ‘move by move’.