Yeah, I expected someone to point out a paper where this has been done (online Wikipedia references don’t have it and I couldn’t find the papers Ermer cited).
The paper presents good evidence in favor of its hypothesis, but I am more interested if ordinary people really do logic better in social context as opposed to other real-world tasks.
As for the test:
Made four cards out of paper, drew a lightning bolt, a light bulb, a crossed-out lightning bolt and a crossed-out light bulb. Back of the cards was empty.
Presented the cards as houses—one side specifies if lights are on, other specifies if there is electricity.
Told them that “if lights are on, there must be electricity in the house” and individually asked which house(s) they must check (flip) to see if any of them are impossible.
This isn’t a good test. I’d much rather go for something more primal, such as “If you don’t eat, you will die”.
Yeah, I expected someone to point out a paper where this has been done (online Wikipedia references don’t have it and I couldn’t find the papers Ermer cited).
The paper presents good evidence in favor of its hypothesis, but I am more interested if ordinary people really do logic better in social context as opposed to other real-world tasks.
As for the test:
Made four cards out of paper, drew a lightning bolt, a light bulb, a crossed-out lightning bolt and a crossed-out light bulb. Back of the cards was empty.
Presented the cards as houses—one side specifies if lights are on, other specifies if there is electricity.
Told them that “if lights are on, there must be electricity in the house” and individually asked which house(s) they must check (flip) to see if any of them are impossible.
This isn’t a good test. I’d much rather go for something more primal, such as “If you don’t eat, you will die”.