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Facilitating Performance with Cued Wording: An Examination of Reasoning in the Tax Context
Author(s) -
RUPERT TIMOTHY J.,
WARTICK MARTHA L.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199708)11:4<321::aid-acp458>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - obligation , permission , task (project management) , cued speech , psychology , context (archaeology) , moral obligation , social psychology , cognitive psychology , law , paleontology , management , political science , economics , biology
Researchers have consistently found increased accuracy for reasoning tasks that involve permission and obligation situations; however, little is known about the task characteristics that aid the reasoning processes in these situations. This study investigates the ability of cued wording (i.e., ‘is permitted’ or ‘is required’) to increase the accuracy of subjects' reasoning. Specifically, two experiments were conducted using versions of the Wason selection task to present tax rules involving permission and obligation situations. Results of both experiments generally support the use of cued wording to increase reasoning accuracy, especially for those subjects with no experience with the rule. These results have implications for rule‐driven fields like taxation, where taxpayers must comply with numerous provisions containing permission and obligation situations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.