The Wason Selection Task - A Logic Puzzle From 1966 That Apparently Stumps Most People
And an online version you can try out for yourself
I’ve written many times about how Americans today appear to want to delegate their thinking to someone else, whether that be to the government, the media, or the pharmaceutical companies - none of whom care about you or your health one iota!
And while I thought this problem, which includes a total unwillingness or inability to think critically, was a relatively new phenomenon, I might be mistaken.
Why?
Well, a couple of years ago, I came across something called the Wason Selection Task, and I find it fascinating.
It was developed by a man called Peter Cathcart Wason in 1966, which is 59 years ago now, and it’s one of those puzzles that appears deceptively simple.
I won’t go into detail just yet for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, but in essence, the puzzle comprises four cards.
In the classic version, you are shown the faces of two of the cards, and the backs of two others.
Your task is to decide which cards you need to turn over to test a given rule.
The correct answer requires you to turn over only those cards necessary - no more, no less.
When I first saw this test of deductive reasoning, it took me a few seconds.
More than that, I wondered why anyone should find it challenging at all.
However, it turns out that, with the classic version of the puzzle, only 4% - 10% of people get it correct!
How can that be?
But then, I looked back at my education and my chosen career, and considered whether they were significant.
Let me explain.
At the boarding school I attended, from 1967 - 1976, most students took the first round of examinations, known as “O” Levels, when they were 16.
I took mine at 15 because I was assigned to a higher year than my biological age would have indicated. In addition, I was in the top stream for maths, and we took that “O” Level one year earlier than all of the other “O” Levels.
I passed that, not with flying colours but well enough.
In the year when most other students were working towards their standard maths “O” Level, we studied for an additional maths “O” Level - an Advanced version.
Somewhere during those two years we studied Boolean logic, being immersed (figuratively speaking) in and, or, not, and exclusive or statements.
We built truth tables, and although I didn’t know it at the time, this would stand me in good stead when I became a computer programmer in 1979.
As a programmer (primarily using the third generation language PL/I), we spent a lot of time writing If…Then…Else statements, which involved lots of logical comparisons.
And some of those could get complex, which is where truth tables can help.
So, did I find the Wason Selection Task easy because of my education and profession, or did I succeed in maths and programming because I was naturally good at maths and logic?
Well, the truth is that I do find maths challenging at times. I enjoy it, but it doesn’t come easily to me.
In fact, one person who was running a training course at another company I worked for told me that people who write left-handed (as I do) typically find mental arithmetic more difficult.
I’m not sure that’s the case with me. Not all the time, at least.
Sometimes, answers pop into my head with no apparent thought processes required to arrive at them, and other times, I struggle to add two small numbers together.
Also, back in the days when I was involved in the world of magic, my signature party piece was something called The Amazing Magic Square And Master Memory Demonstration.
In that:
Someone would call out a number (from 34 to 100).
A 4 x 4 grid would be filled out at random: someone would name one of the 16 cells, I would call out a number, and they would call out an object. Both of those would be written in the chosen cell.
At the end of all this, when all 16 cells had been completed, I could recall what was in each cell, and the entire grid formed a magic square that added up to the original number, in 60+ different combinations.
This is what a completed grid/magic square might look like:
(The above was from an actual performance I gave as part of a show the local magic club I belonged to, the Northamptonshire Magicians’ Club, for the Leamington & Warwick Magic Society in the 1990s.)
So, back to the Wason Selection Task.
To complement this article, I have created an online version of this logic puzzle, which you can find here.
The page has three versions of the task: the first two are similar to the original, while the third one is contextual.
To try the puzzle:
You need to enter your occupation/job/profession. (This is purely for analytical reasons - I’m intrigued as to whether some jobs, such as being a computer programmer, are associated with higher degrees of success than others.)
For each of the three questions, you need to read the rule carefully and then indicate, by clicking the card or the checkbox, which card(s) must be turned over to test that the rule is not being broken.
Once you’ve done the above, click the Submit Answer button. You will then see a page that shows the overall results from all those who have tried their hand at this puzzle, as well as your specific results, with explanations as to why the correct answers are the right ones.
Below the results (which are completely anonymous), you’ll see buttons to share the Wason Selection Task puzzle with others via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In fact, I would appreciate it if you could do that because the more people who take this test, the better idea I’ll have about how challenging people find it. I have always thought the historical statistics of only 4% - 10% of people getting the original question correct seemed too low.
Again, if you haven’t already done so, please try the puzzle now by clicking here - it will only take you a minute or two.
Done?
So, how did you do?
Did you find it easy, as I did, or did you have to think about it? A little? A lot?
And if you got it wrong, then don’t worry - 90% or more of people do too (according to the statistics I’ve read).
Whatever your experience was, that’s fine. I get that not everybody is used to “thinking” like a computer program.
If you did get it wrong, do the explanations on the results page make sense in retrospect?
And did you find the third, contextual question easier than the first two, which is what previous studies have shown?
Finally, I didn’t want to explain too much about the puzzle until you’d had a chance to try it for yourself. I’m sorry if that made this article abstract or confusing. :-)
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