The Effects of Visualization in Chess Instruction on Chess Ability and Mathematics Performance Among Adolescent Students in Northern Mexico
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Visualization has never been tested as a deliberate treatment condition in chess-mathematics transfer research. This quasi-experimental study (N = 70 adolescents, ages 12–18) addresses that gap as the first to isolate visualization-focused instruction as an independent variable and the first to deliver chess-mathematics transfer research in a fully online format with standardized proctored assessment. Participants were systematically allocated to a visualization-focused (n = 36) or standard (n = 34) chess instruction condition and completed four 50-minute synchronous Zoom sessions. Both groups achieved significant chess performance gains with no differential advantage for visualization-focused instruction, demonstrating robust near transfer within the chess domain. Neither group improved in mathematics, indicating absent far transfer to academic performance. The visualization group reported moderately higher engagement without corresponding performance advantages. These findings support the domain-specificity hypothesis, indicating that brief cognitive training produces domain-bound rather than cross-domain gains. This study establishes a methodological benchmark for rigorously proctored online cognitive training and underscores that durable far transfer likely requires extended instructional duration, explicit cross-domain integration, or delayed post testing to capture consolidation effects.
Author: Almeida, Alfonso
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7171273481