To What Extent Do Pragmatic Reasoning Schemas Affect Performance on Wason's Selection Task?

1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira A. Noveck ◽  
David P. O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Control Experiment ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
Standard Problem ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning ◽  
Task Features ◽  
And Task

Cheng and Holyoak's (1985) most persuasive evidence for pragmatic reasoning schema theory has been the finding that an abstract permission version of Wason's selection task yields higher rates of solution than a nonpragmatic control. Experiment 1 presented two problem sets, one modelled after Cheng and Holyoak's abstract permission problem, which is relativley rich in extraneous features, and one after Wason's, relatively impoverished, standard problem. Each problem set varied type of rule (permission, obligation, or nonpragmatic) and task type (to reason from or about a rule). Results revealed that enriched problems were solved more often than impoverished ones, that reasoning-from problems were solved more often than reasoning-about problems, and that there was a beneficial interaction between enriching features and the permission rule. Experiment 2 demonstrated that although explicit negatives were crucial for solution of reasoning-from permission problems, they played no role in solution of enriched nonpragmatic-rule problems. Experiment 3 provided a replication of the enriched reasoning-from permission problem, again revealed no beneficial effect for obligation-rule problems, and further revealed no influence of instructions to provide brief written justifications. We argue that the results show that the scope of pragmatic reasoning schema theory needs to be narrowed, that although a permission rule does have an effect, an obligation rule does not, and that some beneficial task features are independent of anything explained by pragmatic reasoning schema theory.

Costs and benefits in Wason's selection task: The Social Conditional Model 1The author wants to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments about an earlier draft of this paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Wagner-Egger
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Complex Model ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Conditional Model ◽  
Cheater Detection ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

This paper proposes a synthesis of two contrasting theories formulated to explain the content effect in Wason's selection task (1966) , namely the Pragmatic Reasoning Schema Theory ( Cheng & Holyoak, 1985 , 1989 ) and the Social Contract Theory ( Cosmides, 1989 ; Gigerenzer & Hug, 1992 ). Although the authors have attempted to refute their competitors' theory, we can postulate that pragmatic schemas and utilities (costs and benefits) are in fact additional factors that influence performance in the thematic selection task. Using tasks from both models, the four studies presented here indicate that utilities influence responses within the structure of a pragmatic schema. Studies 1-3 suggest that the more costly the consequences of cheating, and the more probable cheating is, the better the cheater-detection. Study 4 indicates an effect of the actual benefit in a social situation. A more complex model distinguishing different kinds of utilities is proposed to account for these results: the Social Conditional Model (SCM).

The Influence of Hypertext Linking Structures on the Efficiency of Information Retrieval

1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael F. Mohageg
Keyword(s):  
Information Retrieval ◽  
Data Base ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Performance Gain ◽  
Hierarchical Network ◽  
Novice Users ◽  
Task Variables ◽  
Information Domain ◽  
Better Than ◽  
And Task

Hypertext systems parse documents into components connected by machine-supported links. This study investigated several usability issues relating to linking configurations in an information retrieval application. A HyperCardTM-based geography data base was used as the information domain. Linear, hierarchical, network, and combination hierarchical/network linking were of particular interest. In addition, the number of required links (two, four, or six links to reach the answer) and task type were the task variables studied. Task type refers to expert programmers' judgments as to whether a task is best suited to a hierarchical or network linking configuration. The intention was to identify the task situations under which each linking structure excels. Results indicated that users of the hierarchical linking structure performed significantly better than those using network linking (on average requiring 49 s less per task). Subjects using the combination condition performed no worse than those using the hierarchical condition, yet the combination condition provided no consistent advantages. Hence, for novice users of a system, no performance gain results from the inclusion of network links (in isolation or in combination with hierarchical).

Investigating task and modality switching costs using bimodal stimuli

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Raj Sandhu ◽  
Ben Dyson
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Switching Costs ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Task Repetition ◽  
Specific Combination ◽  
Task Change ◽  
Modality Switching ◽  
And Task

Investigations of concurrent task and modality switching effects have to date been studied under conditions of uni-modal stimulus presentation. As such, it is difficult to directly compare resultant task and modality switching effects, as the stimuli afford both tasks on each trial, but only one modality. The current study investigated task and modality switching using bi-modal stimulus presentation under various cue conditions: task and modality (double cue), either task or modality (single cue) or no cue. Participants responded to either the identity or the position of an audio–visual stimulus. Switching effects were defined as staying within a modality/task (repetition) or switching into a modality/task (change) from trial n − 1 to trial n, with analysis performed on trial n data. While task and modality switching costs were sub-additive across all conditions replicating previous data, modality switching effects were dependent on the modality being attended, and task switching effects were dependent on the task being performed. Specifically, visual responding and position responding revealed significant costs associated with modality and task switching, while auditory responding and identity responding revealed significant gains associated with modality and task switching. The effects interacted further, revealing that costs and gains associated with task and modality switching varying with the specific combination of modality and task type. The current study reconciles previous data by suggesting that efficiently processed modality/task information benefits from repetition while less efficiently processed information benefits from change due to less interference of preferred processing across consecutive trials.

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