Premium
DEGREES OF INSIGHT
Author(s) -
GOODWIN R. Q.,
WASON P. C.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1972.tb02101.x
Subject(s) - falsity , psychology , task (project management) , cognitive psychology , cognition , sentence , control (management) , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , computer science , linguistics , neuroscience , philosophy , management , economics
This experiment investigated performance on a reasoning task in which the subjects had to say which of four half‐hidden cards they needed to see fully in order to determine the truth or falsity of a conditional sentence. In one experimental condition examples of each of the four types of card were fully displayed to remove any difficulty due to limitation of memory or imagery. No more correct solutions were obtained under this condition than under a control condition in which no such aid was given. After they had made their selections all subjects wrote down their reasons for them. Analysis of the different selections, and the reasons given for them, corroborated a previously proposed information‐processing model, postulated to explain the cognitive processes involved in tasks of this type.