Perspectives on thinking and reasoning
Subtitle: essays in honour of Peter Wason
By: edited by Stephen E. Newstead and Jonathan St. B.T. Evans.
Contributors: Wason, P. C.; Newstead, Stephen E.; Evans, Jonathan St. B. T., 1948-
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Hove, UK; Hillsdale
Language: eng
Number of pages: 309
Subjects: Thought and thinking.; Reasoning (Psychology)
Description: In recent years, there has been a massive upsurge in interest in the psychology of thinking and reasoning. This book contains contributions from virtually all the main players involved in research into these areas. It focuses on three reasoning problems devised by Peter Wason which have inspired countless journal articles over the past 25 years: the selection task, the 2-4-6 task and the THOG problem.

Despite this intense interest, the reasons why people make so many errors in these seemingly simple tasks are still not fully understood. A variety of different theoretical perspectives have been used in trying to explain performance. These include: the mental models approach, the pragmatic reasoning approach and the mental logic approach. All of the leading proponents of these theories have contributed chapters to this book in which they expand and update their theories.

Other chapters, some reviewing the literature, others offering new theoretical perspectives, have been produced by leading researchers from both sides of the Atlantic. There is a final chapter from Peter Wason himself, whose early research prompted the initial interest in these areas. He describes how he came to create the tasks which have proved so influential. The entire book is in essence a tribute to his enormous contribution to research in the psychology of reasoning.

This book will be of relevance to all those interested in human thinking, including students and researchers in psychology, cognitive science and philosophy.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Creating a psychology of reasoning: the contribution of Peter Wason / Jonathan St. B.T. Evans and Stephen E. Newstead; title: The effects of rule clarification, decision justification, and selection instruction on Wason's abstract selection task / Richard A. Griggs; title: Content effects in Wason's selection task / Roger L. Dominowski; title: Pragmatic reasoning about human voluntary action: evidence from Wason's selection task / Keith J. Holyoak and Patricia W. Cheng; title: Deontic reasoning / Ken I. Manktelow and David E. Over; title: Inference and mental models / Philip N. Johnson-Laird; title: Relevance and reasoning / Jonathan St. B.T. Evans; title: The abstract selection task: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis / David W. Green; title: Finding logic in human reasoning requires looking in the right places / David P. O'Brien; title: Hypothesis testing / Michael E. Gorman; title: Scientific reasoning / Ryan D. Tweney and Susan T. Chitwood; title: The THOG problem and its implications for human reasoning / Stephen E. Newstead, Vittorio Girotto, and Paolo Legrenzi; title: Creativity in research / Peter Wason.