The Original Wason Card Selection Problem Essay Example for Free

The Original Wason Card Selection Problem EssayFor many years, the Wason card pickax problem has proved useful for psychologists and other experts in the study of world cerebrate and pellucid 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 implements controls of logical inference (Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby, 2000) by the subjects demonstrated ability to endorse a statement of a general rule or an argument to counter the rule. (Kahneman Tversky 1982)In the airplane pilot 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 hence asked to choose which card/s they would turn-over to test the rule if a card has a vowel on one font, it has an even number on the other (Wason 1966) or the probability of the relationship 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 Wasons 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 march 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 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 paint a picture 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 tick influenceor the way that human beings systematically seek for instances that would confirm a theory rather than for instances to refute a theoryas 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. Fo r 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 problemswhether they indeed express problems in logical formhas yet to be settled. (Fiddick, Cosmides, Tooby 2000)This study therefore aims to geminate Wasons 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 CitedKahneman, D. A. Tversky. (1982). On the study of statistical intuitions. Cognition, 11 123-141Dawson, E., Gilovich, T., D.T. Regan (2002). Motivated reasoning and perform ance on the Wason selection task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 281379.Almor, A. S.A. Sloman (1996). Is deontic reasoning special? mental Review, 103 374-380.Yama, H. (2001). Matching versus optimal data selection in the Wason selection task. intellection 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 Wasons 2-4-6 task An information theory approach. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58A(2) 309-332