A Combined Eye-tracking and EEG Analysis on Chess Moves

Nowadays it is possible to disclose the human cognitive process with increasing details on a number of challenging mental tasks. This paper investigates the focus of visual attention and brain activation on chess moves between players with different proficiencies using a combined eye-tracking and electroencephalographic analysis. Experiments were carried out involving 51 questions related to the chess game, separated into 5 categories and with the participation of 32 volunteers, including professional (with ELO rating) and non-professional chess players. All volunteers' performance were assessed using a quantitative metric based on the answers accuracy and average response time. Our results clearly show that such combined approach allows the interpretation of significant statistical differences between the most proficient and less proficient groups, which would not be possible using the information from a single data source only.