Institute for Cognitive Science, Seoul National University
Abstract
Conditional reasoning, or reasoning from propositions expressed in
the form if P then q, is particularly interesting to investigate because
several previous studies have shown people to perform very poorly at
this task. The well-known Wason card selection paradigm
dramatically reveals the gap between normatively applied (formal)
logical rules as opposed to human performance in such reasoning
task. Wason(l966) presented his subjects with four cards showing
symbols as given in the picture. They were informed that each card
had a letter on one side and a number on the other. Then, they were
given a rule such as: If a card has a vowel on one side, then it hαg
aη even number on the other side.