Thinking about THOG: Sources of error in a deductive reasoning problem

Stephen E. Newstead*, Richard A. Griggs

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Three experiments are reported which investigated performance on a number of variants of the THOG problem. Collectively, these experiments indicated that subjects are more accurate (a) when the problem is phrased in a way that clearly separates the properties of the positive instance provided from the properties about which hypotheses must be generated; and (b) when subjects are required to generate hypotheses about what might be the chosen properties. It is suggested that people have little difficulty in carrying out the various thought processes that are required to reach the correct solution to the standard THOG problem, but that it is beyond most people to carry out all of these processes simultaneously.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)299-305
Number of pages7
JournalPsychological Research
Volume54
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 1992

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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