The Original Wason Card Selection Problem Essay Example for Free

The Original Wason Card Selection Problem Essay For many years, the Wason card selection problem has proved useful for psychologists and other experts in the study of human reasoning and logical ability (Kahneman Tversky 1982; Almor Sloman 1996; Yama 2001; Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby 2000). One of the most popularly used tools in the assessment of the cognitive architecture of humans, the Wason card selection task tests the participants’ logical intuitions based on conditional implications (Almor Sloman 1996). The task likewise proves whether the human mind â€Å"implements rules of logical inference† (Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby, 2000) by the subjects’ demonstrated ability â€Å"to endorse a statement of a general rule† or an argument to counter the rule. (Kahneman Tversky 1982) In the original version of the Wason card selection, the participants of the experiment were shown four cards showing A, T, 4, and 7 by the experimenter. They are then asked to choose which card/s they would turn-over to test the rule â€Å"if a card has a vowel on one side, it has an even number on the other† (Wason 1966) or the probability of the relationship â€Å"if p then q† within the four cards. The Wason selection task is structured so that the four cards are limited to display the instances of a true antecedent (TA) or a false antecedent (FA) on the side shown to the subjects, and a true consequent (TC) or a false consequent (FC) on the other. (Yama 2000) Alternatively, the first side shows instances of ‘p’ and ‘not p’ and ‘q’ and ‘not q’ on the side not shown to the subjects. (Dawson, Gilovich, Regan 2002) What has interested many psychologists and experts is the fact that the typical success rate for solving Wason’s problem in experiments conducted is only around twenty percent (20%). (Dawson, Gilovich, Regan 2002) The most common mistake committed by the participants in the card selection process is choosing the cards with A and 4 or A only instead of the correct response that should have been the cards with A or the p-card and 7 or the not-q card because â€Å"an observation of an odd number on the first card (A) or a vowel on the second card (7) would refute the rule.† (Kahneman Tversky 1982). Researchers suggest that this failure from the part of the subjects to provide the correct answers despite the latent simplicity of the problem may be due to the fact that the problem is not represented in its simple logical form (Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby 2000), confusing many subjects. On the other hand, a growing number of scholars point out to the role of confirmation bias—or the way that human beings systematically seek for instances that would confirm a theory rather than for instances to refute a theory—as a major hindrance to the effective use of logic and reasoning skills of humans (Klayman Ha 1987; Dawson, Gilovich, Regan 2002) which may also explain why majority of the participants fail in the Wason card selection. Other variations to the task have since been developed. For instance, the task is now being used to test not only the human ability for abstract reasoning but also in deontic reasoning. A variation of the Wason card experiment, one that involves only the number sequence 2-4-6 has also been used to study the process of hypotheses-formation among human beings (Cherubini, Castelvecchio, Cherubini 2005). However, the debate on the way that humans approach problems—whether they indeed express problems in logical form—has yet to be settled. (Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby 2000) This study therefore aims to replicate Wason’s original experiment of the four-card selection problem to test whether the same results would be achieved as in the original experiment and to examine whether confirmation bias remained a major problem in answering the tasks for many of the participants. Works Cited: Kahneman, D. A. Tversky. (1982). On the study of statistical intuitions. Cognition, 11: 123-141 Dawson, E., Gilovich, T., D.T. Regan (2002). Motivated reasoning and performance on the Wason selection task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28:1379. Almor, A. S.A. Sloman (1996). Is deontic reasoning special? Psychological Review, 103: 374-380. Yama, H. (2001). Matching versus optimal data selection in the Wason selection task. Thinking and Reasoning, 7(3): 295-311. Fiddick, L., Cosmides, L., J. Tooby. (2000). No interpretation without representation: The role of domain-specific representations and inferences in the Wason selection task. Cognition, 77: 1-79. Wason, P.C. (1966). Reasoning. In B.M. Foss (Ed.), New horizons in psychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Klayman, J. Y. Ha (1987). Confirmation, disconfirmation, and information in hypothesis testing. Psychological Review, 94(2): 211-228. Cherubini, P., Castelvecchio, E., A. M. Cherubini. (2005). Generation of hypotheses in Wason’s 2-4-6 task: An information theory approach. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58A(2): 309-332