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Everything about Wason selection task
Test in the study of deductive reasoning
In psychology, the Wason selection task is a logic puzzle devised by Peter Cathcart Wason in 1966. It is one of the most famous tasks in the study of deductive reasoning. An example of the puzzle is:You are shown a set of four cards placed on a table, each of which has a number on one side and a color on the other. The visible faces of the cards show 3, 8, blue and red. Which card(s) must you turn over in order to test that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is blue? Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Wason selection taskA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Bayesians Too Should Follow Wason: A Comprehensive Accuracy-Based Analysis of the Selection TaskInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Perspectives On Thinking And ReasoningThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection taskCited 1,410 times
- Go sideways: Peter Cathcart WasonA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Leda CosmidesA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task
No interpretation without representation: the role of domain-specific representations and inferences in the Wason selection task
Is prospective altruist-detection an evolved solution to the adaptive problem of subtle cheating in cooperative ventures? Supportive evidence using the Wason selection task
Darwinian algorithms and the Wason selection task: A factorial analysis of social contract selection task problems
Falsification cueing in collective reasoning: example of the Wason selection task
Do people reason on the Wason selection task? A new look at the data of Ball et al. (2003)
Bayesian Rationality for the Wason Selection Task? A Test of Optimal Data Selection Theory
The effect of instructions on performance in the Wason selection task
🆕 Influential since 2022
Bayesians Too Should Follow Wason: A Comprehensive Accuracy-Based Analysis of the Selection Task
Neural correlates of conditional reasoning dysfunction in major depression: An event-related potential study with the Wason selection task
Wason Selection Task and a Semantics Based on State-descriptions
Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task
📚 Books worth reading
Perspectives On Thinking And ReasoningS. Newstead · 1995- 📕Pragmatic reasoning schemaGulaid A. Egeh · 2003
- 📕Deduction or Darwinian algorithms?Leda Cosmides · 1985
Human reasoningEvans, Jonathan St. B. T. · 1993
Evolution and the psychology of thinkingDavid E. Over · 2003
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Peter Cathcart Wason Peter Cathcart Wason (/ˈweɪsən/; 22 April 1924 – 17 April 2003) was an English cognitive psychologist at University College London, who pioneered the psychology…
- Leda Cosmides Leda Cosmides (born May 1957) is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, pioneered the field of evolutionary psychology…
- Modularity of mind Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or mental modules which have distinct, established…
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- Domain specificity Domain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science (especially modern cognitive development) that argues that many aspects of cognition…
- Psychology of reasoning The psychology of reasoning (also known as the cognitive science of reasoning) is the study of how people reason, often broadly defined as the process…
- John Tooby John Tooby (July 26, 1952 – November 10, 2023) was an American anthropologist who, together with his psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, pioneered the field…