Reasoning about a Rule

SAGE Publications - Tập 20 Số 3 - Trang 273-281 - 1968
P. C. Wason1
1Psycholinguistics Research Unit, University College London

Tóm tắt

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the difficulty of making the contra-positive inference from conditional sentences of the form, “if P then Q.” This inference, that not-P follows from not-Q, requires the transformation of the information presented in the conditional sentence. It is suggested that the difficulty is due to a mental set for expecting a relation of truth, correspondence, or match to hold between sentences and states of affairs. The elicitation of the inference was not facilitated by attempting to induce two kinds of therapy designed to break this set. It is argued that the subjects did not give evidence of having acquired the characteristics of Piaget's “formal operational thought.”

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Hughes M. A. M., 1966, The Use of Negative Information in Concept Attainment

Inhelder B., 1958, The Growth of Logical Thinking

10.1080/17470215908416296

10.1111/j.2044-8295.1961.tb00775.x

10.1111/j.2044-8295.1963.tb00885.x

10.1080/17470216408416343

Wason P. C., 1966, New Horizons in Psychology

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

SAGE Publications

Tập 20 Số 3

273-281

Thông tin tác giả