Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The ability to recall domain-specific unstructured material (e.g., random chess positions) is a litmus test for theoriesof expert memory. Theories emphasising high-level memory structures or holistic processing of stimuli predict no differencebetween experts and novices at recalling unstructured material, because no large structure or whole are present in such material.Conversely, theories assuming small memory structures (e.g., chunks) predict a skill effect, because even in scrambled materialsome small meaningful structures occur by chance. This meta-analysis assessed the correlation between expertise and recall ofunstructured material in several domains, including board games, programming, sports, and music. We found a moderate butsignificant overall correlation (r = .42, p < .001), and the presence of an effect in nearly every domain. This outcome suggeststhat experts base their superiority on a vaster knowledge of small memory structures, in addition to high-level structures orholistic processing.