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Do people reason on the Wason selection task?: A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003)

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Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003). / Evans, Jonathan St. B. T.; Ball, Linden J.
In: The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , Vol. 63, No. 3, 2010, p. 434-441.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Evans, JSBT & Ball, LJ 2010, 'Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003)', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 434-441. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210903398147

APA

Evans, J. S. B. T., & Ball, L. J. (2010). Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003). The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , 63(3), 434-441. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210903398147

Vancouver

Evans JSBT, Ball LJ. Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003). The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . 2010;63(3):434-441. doi: 10.1080/17470210903398147

Author

Evans, Jonathan St. B. T. ; Ball, Linden J. / Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003). In: The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . 2010 ; Vol. 63, No. 3. pp. 434-441.

Bibtex

@article{b96e5f5d76f34bf884055bc8681809b7,
title = "Do people reason on the Wason selection task?: A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003)",
abstract = "Despite the popularity of the Wason selection task in the psychology of reasoning, doubt remains as to whether card choices actually reflect a process of reasoning. One view is that while participants reason about the cards and their hidden sidesas indicated by protocol analysisthis reasoning merely confabulates explanations for cards that were preconsciously cued. This hypothesis has apparently been supported by studies that show that participants predominantly inspect cards which they end up selecting. In this paper, we reanalyse the data of one such study, which used eye-movement tracking to record card inspection times (Ball, Lucas, Miles, Gale, 2003). We show that while cards favoured by matching bias are inspected for roughly equal lengths of times, their selection rates are strongly affected by their logical status. These findings strongly support a two-stage account in which attention is necessary but not sufficient for card selections. Hence, reasoning does indeed affect participants' choices on this task.",
keywords = "Reasoning, Wason selection task, Matching bias, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES, INSPECTION TIMES, RELEVANCE, CONDITIONALS, SUPPRESSION, INFERENCE",
author = "Evans, {Jonathan St. B. T.} and Ball, {Linden J.}",
year = "2010",
doi = "10.1080/17470210903398147",
language = "English",
volume = "63",
pages = "434--441",
journal = "The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ",
issn = "1747-0218",
publisher = "Psychology Press Ltd",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do people reason on the Wason selection task?

T2 - A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003)

AU - Evans, Jonathan St. B. T.

AU - Ball, Linden J.

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Despite the popularity of the Wason selection task in the psychology of reasoning, doubt remains as to whether card choices actually reflect a process of reasoning. One view is that while participants reason about the cards and their hidden sidesas indicated by protocol analysisthis reasoning merely confabulates explanations for cards that were preconsciously cued. This hypothesis has apparently been supported by studies that show that participants predominantly inspect cards which they end up selecting. In this paper, we reanalyse the data of one such study, which used eye-movement tracking to record card inspection times (Ball, Lucas, Miles, Gale, 2003). We show that while cards favoured by matching bias are inspected for roughly equal lengths of times, their selection rates are strongly affected by their logical status. These findings strongly support a two-stage account in which attention is necessary but not sufficient for card selections. Hence, reasoning does indeed affect participants' choices on this task.

AB - Despite the popularity of the Wason selection task in the psychology of reasoning, doubt remains as to whether card choices actually reflect a process of reasoning. One view is that while participants reason about the cards and their hidden sidesas indicated by protocol analysisthis reasoning merely confabulates explanations for cards that were preconsciously cued. This hypothesis has apparently been supported by studies that show that participants predominantly inspect cards which they end up selecting. In this paper, we reanalyse the data of one such study, which used eye-movement tracking to record card inspection times (Ball, Lucas, Miles, Gale, 2003). We show that while cards favoured by matching bias are inspected for roughly equal lengths of times, their selection rates are strongly affected by their logical status. These findings strongly support a two-stage account in which attention is necessary but not sufficient for card selections. Hence, reasoning does indeed affect participants' choices on this task.

KW - Reasoning

KW - Wason selection task

KW - Matching bias

KW - INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

KW - INSPECTION TIMES

KW - RELEVANCE

KW - CONDITIONALS

KW - SUPPRESSION

KW - INFERENCE

U2 - 10.1080/17470210903398147

DO - 10.1080/17470210903398147

M3 - Journal article

VL - 63

SP - 434

EP - 441

JO - The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

JF - The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

SN - 1747-0218

IS - 3

ER -