Cultural transmission of move choice in chess

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lappo, Egor, Rosenberg, Noah A., Feldman, Marcus W.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Lappo, Egor
Rosenberg, Noah A.
Feldman, Marcus W.
author_facet Lappo, Egor
Rosenberg, Noah A.
Feldman, Marcus W.
contents The study of cultural evolution benefits from detailed analysis of cultural transmission in specific human domains. Chess provides a platform for understanding the transmission of knowledge due to its active community of players, precise behaviors, and long-term records of high-quality data. In this paper, we perform an analysis of chess in the context of cultural evolution, describing multiple cultural factors that affect move choice. We then build a population-level statistical model of move choice in chess, based on the Dirichlet-multinomial likelihood, to analyze cultural transmission over decades of recorded games played by leading players. For moves made in specific positions, we evaluate the relative effects of frequency-dependent bias, success bias, and prestige bias on the dynamics of move frequencies. We observe that negative frequency-dependent bias plays a role in the dynamics of certain moves, and that other moves are compatible with transmission under prestige bias or success bias. These apparent biases may reflect recent changes, namely the introduction of computer chess engines and online tournament broadcasts. Our analysis of chess provides insights into broader questions concerning how social learning biases affect cultural evolution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_10375
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cultural transmission of move choice in chess
Lappo, Egor
Rosenberg, Noah A.
Feldman, Marcus W.
Physics and Society
Populations and Evolution
The study of cultural evolution benefits from detailed analysis of cultural transmission in specific human domains. Chess provides a platform for understanding the transmission of knowledge due to its active community of players, precise behaviors, and long-term records of high-quality data. In this paper, we perform an analysis of chess in the context of cultural evolution, describing multiple cultural factors that affect move choice. We then build a population-level statistical model of move choice in chess, based on the Dirichlet-multinomial likelihood, to analyze cultural transmission over decades of recorded games played by leading players. For moves made in specific positions, we evaluate the relative effects of frequency-dependent bias, success bias, and prestige bias on the dynamics of move frequencies. We observe that negative frequency-dependent bias plays a role in the dynamics of certain moves, and that other moves are compatible with transmission under prestige bias or success bias. These apparent biases may reflect recent changes, namely the introduction of computer chess engines and online tournament broadcasts. Our analysis of chess provides insights into broader questions concerning how social learning biases affect cultural evolution.
title Cultural transmission of move choice in chess
topic Physics and Society
Populations and Evolution
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.10375