Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off your first 2 months of Unlimited Monthly. Start your subscription for just £29.99 £19.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more

Week 2 Class Experiment: The Wason Card Selection Task

Here we provide the information regarding the Class experiment for Week 2.
6.7
We are now going to introduce you to a classic psychological experiment on deductive reasoning known as the Wason card selection task. The set up is simple On the table in front of you are four cards. You are told that all of the cards have a letter on one side and a number (a single digit) on the other. The four cards are showing A, K, 4 and 7. You are given the following rule. ’If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other.’ Your task is to name those cards and only those cards which need to be turned over to decide whether the rule is true or false.
50.3
Thinking back this begins to feel like something we are already familiar with. Remember If p then q In this case p – refers to having a vowel and q – refers to having a even number And indeed this is a test of your ability to reason deductively. To cut to the pass – roughly 4% of students manage to provide the correct answer. If you do get the correct answer then genius otherwise normal – most people do not answer this puzzle correctly. The weeks experiment is on this particular deductive reasoning task.

In the video, Rob provides introductory remarks about this classic reasoning problem.

Alert

The solution is to the problem is provided next, but don’t progress until you have given yourself enough time to think of what the correct answer is.

This article is from the free online

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology: An Experimental Science

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now