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Research has shown that people find it very difficult to decide what information is
necessary in order to test the truth of an abstract logical-reasoning problem.
The Wason Selection Task is often used to examine this issue.
A typical experiment using the Wason Selection Task will present some rule,
and ask subjects to see if the rule is being violated. Consider the rule:
If a card has a D on one side, it has a 3 on the other side.
Subjects are aware that on the particular set of cards, each one has a
letter on one side and a number on the other side. Four cards are shown,
such as those below:
Very few people can correctly pick the two cards to turn over to verify the rule.
The correct cards are D and 7; most likely, you picked D and 3. Seeing what is on
the reverse of the 7 card can lead to falsifying the rule if a D shows up. Seeing
what is on the reverse of the 3 card cannot falsify the rule. It can confirm the
rule, but not falsify it.
Consider another rule:
If you borrow my car, you must fill up the gas tank.
Four cards are shown below:
Which cards do you turn over to see if the rule is being followed?
You should find that now the answer is more obvious: You want to know
what's on the reverse of "borrowed car" and "empty gas tank."
This lab is based on a series of experiments reported by Wason & Shapiro (1971).
You will be given a series of rules to verify. Half of them are abstract and half
are thematic (the same kind of rule shown above about borrowing a car). The basic
idea is that you can test rules when you have some knowledge or experience that is
appropriate, but not when you lack this experience. In the thematic case, then,
you are not really using logic per se but rather your experience. In the abstract
case, you cannot use your experience and have to rely solely on logic.
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