Content and context effects in reasoning.

Griggs and Cox (1982) reported a phrasing of the Wason selection task that produces considerable facilitation. Two experiments are reported here that break down aspects of this problem in an attempt to determine the key to this effect. In the first experiment, it is shown that neither the content of drinks and age per se, nor the evocation of a detective set alone, is responsible. The second experiment focuses more closely on the original Griggs and Cox design and shows that neither (a) the presence of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and the legal age as content in the problem, nor (b) the specific scenario of people drinking in a bar and a policeman enforcing the law, appears to be solely responsible for the effect. There is, however, some indication that the scenario may be more important than the content. Results are interpreted as indicating that for orientation toward counter-examples to be observed, the context (or scenario) of the problem must relate to a type of situation that subjects have previously experienced and for which they have learned appropriate testing behavior. The content need not be previously experienced as long as it is clearly appropriate to that general type of situation.

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