Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Tetris is a fast-paced puzzle solving game that requires play-ers to rapidly maneuver falling blocks to clear rows and scorepoints. Skilled Tetris players learn to execute moves in thegame very quickly to keep up with the increasing time pres-sure. But world champion Tetris players employ more complexstrategies that save precious milliseconds that enable them toreach even higher levels of play. Such strategies show mas-tery of the game’s event structure, but also come with a startupcost— a “cognitive speed bump”— wherein they must mo-mentarily decide whether to rotate a block left or right, evenfor scenarios where the distinction is not meaningful for per-formance. We present data showing both the world champions’superior overall action times, but also a preliminary “speedbump” that is consistent both within and between world cham-pion players. Potential underlying memory structures are ex-plored, and implications are discussed for both the Soft Con-straints Hypothesis and the relationship between Hick’s Lawand expertise.