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Chess study shows masks can put cognitive performance in check
The study is published in PNAS - behind a paywall.
An excerpt from the article at phys.org:
Wearing a face mask can temporarily disrupt decision-making in some situations according to University of Queensland research.
Dr. David Smerdon from UQ's School of Economics analyzed almost three million chess moves played by more than eight thousand people in 18 countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and found wearing a mask substantially reduced the average quality of player decisions.
"The decrease in performance was due to the annoyance caused by the masks rather than a physiological mechanism, but people adapted to the distraction over time," Dr. Smerdon said.
"The data showed masks were more likely to decrease performance in situations where there was a demanding mental task with a high working memory load.
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Chess study shows masks can put cognitive performance in check (Original Post)
Jim__
Dec 2022
OP
Temporary, only as distraction, "rather than a physiological mechanism". magats ignore nuance
Bernardo de La Paz
Dec 2022
#1
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,788 posts)1. Temporary, only as distraction, "rather than a physiological mechanism". magats ignore nuance
magats ignore nuance and will trumpet this far and wide.
Will go take a look now.
So I guess the surgeons better unmask for better performance. I wonder if the chess study took into consideration that the players might be distracted by the possibility of contracting
a fatal(at the time) disease while playing a game? I can tell you that to this day I am distracted by being near unmasked people indoors. Maybe its the distraction of the disease not the actual mask.
Igel
(35,197 posts)6. "people adapted to the distraction over time,"
I assume surgeons are people.
WestMichRad
(1,282 posts)3. Ummm... is it disruptive to the mask-wearing player?
or to the opponent of the mask wearer?
Jim__
(14,045 posts)4. Both players were wearing masks.
The abstract on PNAS states that he is talking about mandatory mask wearing.
Abstract
The use of face masks has been a key response to the COVID-19 pandemic in almost every country. However, despite widespread use of masks in classrooms and offices around the world, almost nothing is known about their effects on cognitive performance. Using a natural experiment, I show that mandatory mask wearing has a negative causal effect on the cognitive performance of competitive chess players. I analyzed the quality of almost 3 million chess moves played by 8,531 individuals (ages 598 y) in 18 countries before and during the pandemic. Wearing a mask decreased the quality of players decisionsa measure of their cognitive performanceby approximately one-third of an SD. However, the disruptive effect of masks is relatively short-lived, gradually weakening such that there is no measurable disadvantage from wearing a mask after roughly 4 h of play. The mask effect is driven by a large, negative effect for experts, with minimal change in performance at lower levels, and is stronger in high-incentive competitions. I provide support for a distraction mechanism whereby masks interfere with performance when working memory load is high.
The use of face masks has been a key response to the COVID-19 pandemic in almost every country. However, despite widespread use of masks in classrooms and offices around the world, almost nothing is known about their effects on cognitive performance. Using a natural experiment, I show that mandatory mask wearing has a negative causal effect on the cognitive performance of competitive chess players. I analyzed the quality of almost 3 million chess moves played by 8,531 individuals (ages 598 y) in 18 countries before and during the pandemic. Wearing a mask decreased the quality of players decisionsa measure of their cognitive performanceby approximately one-third of an SD. However, the disruptive effect of masks is relatively short-lived, gradually weakening such that there is no measurable disadvantage from wearing a mask after roughly 4 h of play. The mask effect is driven by a large, negative effect for experts, with minimal change in performance at lower levels, and is stronger in high-incentive competitions. I provide support for a distraction mechanism whereby masks interfere with performance when working memory load is high.
WestMichRad
(1,282 posts)5. Thanks Jim!