Looking behind: Turning cards in the selection task

Wason's selection task requires that one imagine which of four cards, each of which has a letter on one side and a number on the other, one would have to turn over to determine whether a statement about the cards is true or false. For example, one might see four cards showing T, H, 6, and 4 and be asked to say which card or cards one would have to turn over to determine whether a statement in the form of If a card has T on one side, it has 4 on the other is true. In the great majority of experiments with this task no cards are actually turned. This limits the conclusions that can be drawn from experimental results. In two experiments participants actually turned (had a computer turn) virtual cards so as to show what they contained on their originally hidden sides. Participants were given a monetary incentive to do well on the task, and they performed it, with trial-by-trial feedback, many times. Performance was much better than is typically obtained with the more common way of performing the task. Results also demonstrate the importance of the precise wording of the statement to be evaluated and how a misinterpretation could help account for a tendency for people to turn only a single card even when the turning of two is required. Results prompt several questions of a theoretical nature and are discussed as they relate to recent theoretical treatments of the selection task.