Utilities in the 2-4-6 task

Experimental Psychology
Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau

Abstract

The Wason 2-4-6 task was embedded in a practical reasoning scenario where number sequences had well-defined utilities in the process of achieving a goal. Reasoners' hypothesis-testing behavior was clearly goal-driven and was significantly influenced by whether the utilities favored positive or negative sequences. In the version of the scenario where generating positive sequences had greater benefits than generating negative ones, participants performed poorly at the task as measured by their ability to guess the correct rule and by the nature and number of triples tested before making an announcement. In contrast, the scenario that assigned a greater utility to the production of negative sequences fostered significantly more diligent and creative hypothesis-testing behavior, and participants were significantly more likely to discover the rule. These results suggest that the poor performance observed in Wason's traditional 2-4-6 task reflects a hypothesis-testing process that by default assigns greater utility to the production of sequences that conform to the initial triple, and hence receive positive feedback. However, reasoners are not averse to producing negative sequences, and understand their implication, if their utility ...Continue Reading

References

Sep 1, 1987·British Journal of Addiction·M J JarvisC Feyerabend
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May 15, 2003·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Oshin VartanianJonna Kwiatkowski
May 21, 2005·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Paolo CherubiniAnna Maria Cherubini
Apr 13, 2006·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Maggie Gale, Linden J Ball
Oct 22, 2008·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau, Teresa Payton

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Citations

Jul 29, 2004·Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes·Robin A Murphy, A G Baker
Aug 28, 2014·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Jonathan St B T Evans
Aug 30, 2016·Acta Psychologica·Frédéric Vallée-TourangeauMiroslav Sirota

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