Abstract

in its standard form..., the task presents the S with 4 cards and an "If p then q" rule that refers to these cards / it is made clear to the S that the cards each have a letter on 1 side and a number on the other side / the S can see only 1 side of each card and is asked to select only the card or cards that must be turned over so as to determine whether the rule is true or false / the visible sides of the 4 cards represent cases of p, not-p, q, and not-q / the correct answer is to select the p and the not-q cards... because only cases of p and not-q can falsify the "If p then q" implication rule reliably good performance on some thematic versions of the [selection] task... and on some abstract schema versions... has been observed, but such facilitation on the standard abstract task has remained an elusive result / recently, however, [R. Platt and the author] managed to produce such facilitation / [3 factors were important to obtaining their results:] rule clarification, decision justification, and selection introduction / in order to provide a frame for the... findings, [the author] will review the previous research on each factor, highlighting the studies most relevant to [the author's] experiments / describe the... findings and then conclude by positioning these findings within the previous literature and the current major theories of performance on the standard abstract selection task