Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Summary

This study aims to analyze how people reason with and about normative rules, deontic reasoning, and the importance of world knowledge in subjects´ inferences. For this purpose, one of the main experimental paradigms in reasoning research was used: Wason´s selection task.

Abstract

The goal of the presented protocol is to examine the role of semantic and pragmatic variables in reasoning, using Wason´s selection task, devised by Peter Wason in the 1960s. This problem was designed to investigate how people test hypotheses and make inferences from if-then conditional statements. This author has been considered the founder of a new era in the psychology of reasoning. In this sense, the traditional idea was challenged that subjects reasoned by logical processes, and it was shown that reasoning was content-dependent. From the sixties until now, numerous investigations have revealed that better results were obtained with the initial thematic tasks compared to the original abstract problem, which could be due to other factors, such as the scenario or the task instructions. Specifically, in this study, three variables are manipulated: type of thematic content (permission, obligation, neutral), framing (including normative deontic rules or indicative conditionals about factual relations), and scenario (a context was provided or not). Results showing the key role of thematic content of the rule, the scenario, and the deontic framing on subjects´ inferences are presented. More precisely: (1) highest performance was registered in rules expressing a permission and the worst reasoning was observed when there wasn´t relationship between antecedent-consequent of the rule: neutral content; (2) reasoning was considerably better when the scenario was present versus when the scenario was absent; (3) significant interaction between scenario and framing was registered: performance was significantly higher if the task was included in a scenario when deontic framing was presented. Finally, this investigation has highlighted the importance of deontic reasoning and empirical knowledge in reasoning with the selection task. Consequently, the results obtained seem to reflect the dynamic and flexible nature of human reasoning.

Introduction

The overall goal of the Wason selection task is to analyze how subjects formulate and test hypotheses from a conditional "If p then q" rule. This problem has been and continues to be one of the best experimental tools for studying the mechanisms underlying human reasoning. The original abstract version of the problem¹ is illustrated in Figure 1.

Protocol

The studies involving human participants have been approved by the Bioethics Committee of the University of Santiago de Compostela. Moreover, written informed consent was obtained from the participants. The tasks will be presented in a paper-and-pencil format. It will only be necessary to use technology in the analysis of results (see Table of Materials).

1. Preparation of the stimuli for the three versions of Wason´s Selection Task

1. Prepare the basic stimuli for neutral content:
   1. Elaborate on four cards.
   2. Write on each card the name of an animal on one side (cat, lion) and t....

Results

A Logical Index was computed as proposed by Pollard and Evans³⁵. This one consists of scoring +1 for each correct card selected (+1 for the selection of p and +1 for the selection of not-q). So the correct selection had a score of +2. For each incorrect card selected, a score of -1 was given (not-p: -1 and q: -1). For this study, the main research issues focused on how the thematic content, the scenario, and the framing may affect the subjects´ reasoning with the selection task. Thus, a 3 x 2 x 2 .......

Discussion

In this research, the experimental design has allowed one to analyze the role of thematic content, deontic framing, and task scenario in reasoning with the four-card task. Specifically, all subjects solved three thematic versions of the selection task, which included different empirical relationships between antecedent and consequent of the rules (neutral, permission, and obligation). As explained previously, from a formal point of view, the logical meaning of a conditional rule is only one: as a unidirectional material .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
IBM SPSS Statistics	IBM Corporation	N/A	Statistical package to analyze the data.
Thematic-Neutral version of Wason´s selection task	N/A	N/A	The task has been implemented using a paper-and-pencil format.
Thematic-Obligation version of Wason´s selection task	N/A	N/A	The task has been implemented using a paper-and-pencil format.
Thematic-Permission version of Wason´s selection task	N/A	N/A	The task has been implemented using a paper-and-pencil format.