realitygrill comments on Rationality Lessons in the Game of Go - Less Wrong

40 Post author: GreenRoot 21 August 2010 02:33PM

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Comment author: realitygrill 25 August 2010 02:46:31AM *  0 points [-]

However, just because being rational helps with the game, that doesn't mean that students of the game will learn this. (After all, being rational helps with real life, yet many students of real life miss these lessons entirely!) Each game (at least each that has long been widely played) has its own literature and tradition of strategy with maxims and advice, and this is what students will learn.

Right on - I hear a lot of twaddle about the benefits of martial arts practice, especially in their marketing or articles, but rarely do students actually accrue those benefits if they aren't specifically trying to. This probably generalizes.

Comment author: gwern 25 August 2010 05:16:09AM 5 points [-]

This reminds me of a recent correlational study discussed on the dual n-back mailing list, about comparing Go experts with non-experts. (Have to scroll down.)

The Go experts had, if anything, lower IQs; the spatial mechanisms that the Go experts seem to be drawing upon for their performance don't seem to generalize. Like chess, Go may stress WM and IQ early on, but eventually domain-specific stuff comes to dominate.

Comment author: ChristianKl 27 August 2010 02:37:11PM *  0 points [-]

You however have to know that a lot of go experts also usually spent less time on other task that can improve mental skills. Korean go professionals for example don't have a normal school education but instead spend that time of their life with learning go.

Comment author: gwern 27 August 2010 04:20:11PM 0 points [-]

Yes, but while schooling gives an IQ boost, it isn't that much of one. At least, I vaguely remember the one study I've heard of which shows causality only showing a few points. That might offset the observed decrease, but given that I naively expected the Go experts to have average IQs 20 points higher or so, is still a deeply counterintuitive result.

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