Wason Selection Task

Information about Wason Selection Task

Devised in 1966 by Peter Cathcart Wason,^[1]^[2] the Wason selection task is a logical puzzle which is formally equivalent to the following question:

You are shown a set of four cards placed on a table each of which has a number on one side and a coloured patch on the other side. The visible faces of the cards show 3, 8, red and brown. Which cards should you turn over in order to test the truth of the proposition that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face shows a primary colour?

A response which identifies a card which need not be inverted, or a response which fails to identify a card which needs to be inverted are both incorrect.

Solution

The correct response is that the cards showing 8 and brown must be inverted, but no other card. Remember how the question was stated: "If the card shows an even number, then its opposite face shows a primary colour." If we turn over the card labelled "3" and find that it is red, this does not invalidate the rule. Likewise, if we turn over the red card and find that it has the label "3", this also does not make the rule false. On the other hand, if the brown card has the label "4", this invalidates the rule: It has an even number, and does not have a primary colour. This task is an example of a material conditional in logic.

Interpretations of the Wason selection task

Experiments have shown that, presented with a Wason task as an uncontextualised logic puzzle, people perform very poorly. Furthermore, even of those who respond correctly, some obtain the correct result by conscious application of the contrapositive rule. By contrast, some (though not all) Wason tasks prove much easier when they are presented in a context of social relations. For example, if the rule "Only people over 18 are allowed to drink alcohol" is tested, most people have no difficulty in selecting the correct subjects (those under 18 and those that are drinking alcohol) that must be tested.

Adherents of evolutionary psychology have argued that a simple rule distinguishes Wason tasks which people find easy from those that they find difficult. The suggested rule is that a Wason task proves to be easier if the rule to be tested is one of social exchange (in order to receive benefit X you need to fulfill condition Y) and the subject is asked to police the rule, but is more difficult otherwise. If this classification is accepted, then it supports the contention of evolutionary psychologists that certain features of human psychology may be mechanisms that have evolved, through natural selection, to solve specific problems of social interaction, rather than expressions of general intelligence,^[3].

References

1. ^ Wason, P. C.; Shapiro, D. (1966). "Reasoning", in Foss, B. M.: New horizons in psychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
2. ^ Wason, P. C. (1971). "Natural and contrived experience in a reasoning problem". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 23: 63–71.
3. ^ Cosmides, L.; Tooby, J. (1992). "Cognitive Adaptions for Social Exchange".

External links

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Year 1966 (MCMLXVI
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Peter Cathcart Wason (22 April 1924 - 17 April 2003) was a cognitive psychologist, who worked on the psychology of reason. He made great progress in explaining why people make certain consistent mistakes in logical reasoning.
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Logic (from Classical Greek λόγος logos; meaning word, thought, idea, argument, account, reason, or principle) is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration.
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additive primary colors of a CRT color video display]] Primary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range (gamut) of colors. For human applications, three are often used; for additive combination of colors, as in overlapping projected lights or in
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The material conditional, also known as the material implication or truth functional conditional, expresses a property of certain conditionals in logic. In propositional logic, it expresses a binary truth function ⊃ from truth-values to truth-values.
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In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex- periri, "of (or from) trying") is a set of observations performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena.
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Contraposition is the concept of how two qualities or statements relate to each other. In mathematics, for the statement "if P, then Q" for any two propositions P and Q, the converse is "if Q, then P", the inverse
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Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i.e., as the functional products of natural selection.
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Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
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Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. There are several ways to define intelligence.
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Leda Cosmides, (born May 7, 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology.

Cosmides originally studied biology at Harvard University, receiving her A.
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