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Performa E V G F W P
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Compone c r o i a o o
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70-100% : 5 %
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Attention
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assignment
task
Analysis
Structure
Use of
sources
References
Introductio
n
Conclusion
Spelling/Gr
ammar
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n (Style)
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SUMMARY COMMENTS
ANNOTATED FEEDBACK
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An Experimental Approach to Analyse Success Rates in Concrete and
Abstract Selection Tasks
Charles Brand
Dublin City University
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate whether people are more successful
in a reasoning task when rules involve thematic content and materials than
when the task involves abstract terms and relationships between objects.
As demonstrated by Johnson-Laird et al (1972) a higher success rate in
selection tasks was observed when realistic objects, terms and relations
were utilised in the selection test. The abstract condition test as developed
by Wason (1966) was shown to have a lower success rate than the concrete
condition test developed by Johnson-Laird et al (1972). This study required
both the concrete and abstract tests to be recreated and administered.
Results for 99 participants (n=99) were analysed. Participants ranged in
age from 18-65. Results showed a significantly higher success rate for the
concrete condition test (60%).
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Introduction
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examine the explicit inferential processes that people employed. The
syllogisms they utilised for the experimental task were classic in form:
Some A are B
No C are B
Therefore
Some C are not A.
Participants in these experiments were usually asked to demonstrate
whether or not they understood the logical validity of the syllogistic
argument presented to them. This experimental methodology is still
prevalent in cognitive research today as the primary means of investigating
reasoning and logic processes in humans (Evans, Newstead & Byrne, 1993).
One reason for using a conditional format (if...then) to pose questions to
participants in experimental settings, as Wason (1966) did, is that it
minimises contextualisation of the proposition or the introduction of beliefs
on the part of the participants (Verschueren et al, 2006).
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Johnson-Laird, Legrenzi & Legrenzi (1972) argued that the abstract nature
of the instructions, context and materials used Wason's experiment made
success in the task unduly difficult. They proposed that using more
recognisable materials (envelopes and stamps) and introducing a more
concrete context (a postal worker scenario) instead of the abstract
number/letter combination used by Wason would yield a higher rate of
success. Their experiment was shown to support their hypothesis with a
62.5% success rate and Griggs & Cox (1982) labelled this as the thematic
materials effect. Adaptations of both the abstract and concrete selection
experiments have been developed to probe a variety of hypotheses
involving logic and reasoning. These include psychological investigations
into the reasoning structures of pathological participants (see Dudly et al,
1998), the development of the field known as conditional reasoning
research (see Verschueren, Schaeken, & Schroyens, 2006; Beller &
Kuhnmünch, 2007) as well as Wason's own modification of the original
basic form of the experiment using thematic materials (See Wason &
Shapiro, 1971).
The aim of this study was to verify that people will more often successfully
reason in a logical manner when the rules involve thematic content and
materials, as demonstrated by the Johnson-Laird et al (1972) experiment
than in the abstract condition test as developed by Wason (1966). This
required both the concrete and abstract tests to be recreated and
administered to a population sample in order to support or reject the
following hypothesis:
H1
There should be a significant difference between the rate of success on the
concrete selection task and the rate of success on the abstract selection
task.
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Method
Design
Participants
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Participants in the remainder of the sample comprised a self-selected
sample of 89 friends and relatives of the students from the Oscail Cognitive
Psychology class, Group 1.
Males = 37
Females = 55
Age Range = 18-65
Results of subset tests were incorporated into the over-all sample and
yielded the follow results:
Abstract condition = 49 participants.
Concrete condition = 50 participants.
Materials
Procedure
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Participants were then requested to sign a consent form (see appendix B).
Participants were allocated to either the abstract or concrete test by means
of a lottery using the relevant aforementioned materials.
The materials for both the abstract and concrete tests were pre-prepared on
the table, facing the participant and under a large enough cloth sheet to
cover both sets of test materials. Upon allocation to each test as per the
lottery procedure, the instruction sheet for each test was then placed in
front of the participant face down.
Abstract test
The following instruction was given to each participant:
“Please turn over the [statement] sheet, read the instructions and when
you're satisfied that you understand the instruction let me know.”
Once the participant indicated they understood the instruction on the
instruction sheet the cloth sheet was folded back to reveal the set of
abstract cards. The stopwatch was then started. The stopwatch was stopped
once they indicated that they had turned over as many cards that they felt
had verified the statement on the statement sheet to be either true or false.
The configuration of the cards was as follows:
Concrete test
The following instruction was given to each participant:
“We're going to pretend that you work in a post office sorting depot. You
are seated in front of a conveyor belt and your job is to inspect letters as
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they pass to ensure they adhere to certain rules about the type of stamps
that are put on envelopes depending on whether they're open or closed. On
the instruction sheet is a rule that has to be verified”. Once the participant
indicated they understood the instruction on the instruction sheet the cloth
sheet was folded back to reveal the set of envelopes. The stopwatch was
then started. The stopwatch was stopped once they indicated that they had
chosen as many envelopes that they felt had verified the statement on the
statement sheet to be either true or false. The configuration of open/closed
envelopes, stamp showing/stamp not showing and stamp type was as
follows:
Visibly Sealed Visibly Unsealed Not visibly Unsealed Not visibly Sealed
Stamp face down Stamp face down Stamp face up Stamp face up
Once the stopwatch was stopped participant details such as time taken to
complete the test, age, success rate and occupational status were recorded.
Participants were then invited to ask any questions they may have about
the particular test they completed or the experiment in general. Once this
discussion was complete a debriefing sheet (see appendix C) was given to
each participant.
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Results
Table 1 - Success and Failure Rates for Abstract and Concrete Conditions
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Abstract Condition
18
Success
Concrete Condidtion
Success
Abstract Condition
32 Failure
Concrete Condidtion
Failure
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Figure 1 - Success and Failure Rates for Abstract and Concrete Conditions
The failure rate for the abstract condition was 60% higher than that of the
concrete failure rate. The success rate for the concrete condition was 87.5%
higher than that of the abstract condition.
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The frequency of the number of cards/envelopes chosen by each participant
for the each selection test is detailed in Table 2, Table 3 and Figure 2. For
both the concrete and abstract conditions combined, participants selected,
on average, the correct number of cards/envelopes on 36.5% of tests.
Table 2 - Number of Cards Turned by Frequency
45
40
Number of Participants
35
30
25
Concrete Condition
20 Abstract condition
15
10
0
1 Card/envelope 2 cards/envelope 3 cards envelopes 4 cards/envelopes
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The time ranges participants for completion of the tests in the overall
sample are shown in Table 4
Table 4 – Time Ranges for Completion of Each Condition
Abstract 155.02
Concrete 140.06
A Mann-Whitney U Test was conducted on the overall success rate for the
participants in both the abstract and concrete conditions. The participants
in the concrete condition were significantly more successful at choosing the
correct cards than were those in the abstract condition U(97) = 541.00, z=
-5.75, p ,.001 two-tailed.
Ranks
Condition N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks
Overall Success Abstract 49 63.96 3134.00
dimension1
Concrete 50 36.32 1816.00
Total 99
Test Statistics
Overall Success
Mann-Whitney U 541.000
Wilcoxon W 1816.000
Z -5.745
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Discussion
The Wason (1966) card selection test and envelope selection test developed
by Johnson-Laird et al (1972) were recreated in order to verify that the use
of thematic materials would increase the success rate of the participants in
this condition. A significant difference was observed between success rates
for the concrete and abstract selection tests with a statistical chance of the
difference being due to chance being less than 1% (P>00.1). The resultant
z value (z> 1.96) suggest that the null hypothesis can be rejected.
The higher success rate for the concrete test is in-line with similar
experimental results (see johnson-Laird et al, 1972). The possible causes of
a higher success rate in this study may have been due to a number of
possible factors and is not conclusive. The question considered relevant in
order to better understand possible reasons for the difference in success
rates was: whether it was the terms or relationships between the terms
used in the experiments i.e. envelopes and stamps as opposed to letters,
vowels and consonants that facilitated a higher success rate in the concrete
condition test (Johnson-Laird & Wason, 1977). Bracewell & Hidi (1974)
found that only the relation between terms that provided insight to the
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participants and could be responsible for the higher success rate. Gilhooly &
Falconer (1974) found opposing evidence in their experiment which
suggested that the realistic nature of the terms was a more important factor
in participants successfully completing the concrete condition test. Van
Duyne (1976) somewhat reconciled these dichotomous experimental results
by suggesting that a more complex process was involved that introduced
degrees of realism which affected participants performance.
The impact of these factors on the results of this study are, however
mitigated by a lack of test reliability and procedural consistency.
Participants in this study varied in the number of cards and envelopes they
turned over before they were satisfied that they had verified that the
statement on the statement sheet. Due to a lack of complete procedural
data pertaining to the order in which the cards and envelopes were placed
in front of all participants, no statistical information can be calculated in
relation to the frequency of particular selection combinations or sequence of
selections. A number of different researchers were responsible for
conducting all of the tests but without a single definition of test
requirements or test materials e.g. type of timing device, when to begin and
end the timing sequence. Test location was also highly varied and
conceptual problems regarding the methodology of administering the test to
participants were also observed. Ethical concerns regarding the nature of
the tests aired by some researchers may have distorted the delivery of
instructions to participants and due to the fact that family members of
researchers were used as participants may have also introduced anomalous
behaviour on the part of the researchers, All these confounds render the
test results unreliable.
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References
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Wason, P.C. (1966). Reasoning. In Foss, B. M. (Eds), New horizons in
psychology. Harmondsworth, U.K.:Penguin.
Wason, P.C., Shapiro, D. (1971). Natural and Contrived Experience in a
Reasoning Problem. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 23, 63-
71.
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Appendix A
LETTER OF CONSENT
Re: Wason Selection Test – Humanities Degree Program (HONS) Oscail Psychology 4 Research
This research is being undertaken by Charles Brand, who is a student at Dublin City
University, Dublin 9.
The study will examine the logical thinking and reasoning by way of a card selection
test. The test will take no longer than 10 minutes and involves nothing more than
If you agree to participate in this study your identity will be coded for anonimity
purposes and the information that you provide will be destroyed immediately after
inputting into a dataset. You will be at liberty to withdraw from the study at any time
without prejudice. Your rights under the Freedom of Information Act 1977 (amended
Charles Brand,
e-mail: Charlesbrand@gmail.com
Please place an X in the box to indicate that you have read and understood the above and that you
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Appendix B
All participants were tested in the same room which was brightly lit. All
participants sat opposite the researcher who was seated with their back to a
dark coloured wall with no windows.
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Appendix C
Debriefing Sheet
The study examined how people use their logic and reasoning skills in relation to
The test that you completed was developed in order for psychologists to better
understand how we utilise different aspects of our knowledge to reason and perform
logical tasks. Success or failure by the participants in the test is not the only or
primary concern. The process by which participants come to their conclusions are of
Charles Brand,
e-mail: Charlesbrand@gmail.com
Should you have been affected by any of the issues touched upon in this study, the following services are
available to you:
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