ABSTRACT
In the original P. C. Wason studies, real packs of cards were used, which the subjects were allowed to inspect prior to the four cards being secretly drawn. The task set is one of hypothesis testing, although it requires deductive reasoning based on the logic of conditionals. Wason’s introduction of the selection task was followed by several journal articles which established the reliability of the phenomenon and its robustness in the face of minor procedural variations. Wason and D. Shapiro reported an experiment using a problem content which became known as “Towns and Transport”. The wording of the selection task instructions has attracted attention from time to time in the subsequent literature on the selection task. E. R. Valentine looked at the relationship between a general measure of intelligence and performance on the selection task in a group of undergraduate psychology students.
