Boissonnade, Romain

2017-11-1, Boissonnade, Romain, Arcidiacono, Francesco

This paper presents a pilot experiment using the selection task in order to explore its potential to favour deductive reasoning learning. For this purpose, a teaching sequence has been designed as follows: in pre- and post-tests, pre-service teachers (students in education) were asked to solve both abstract and thematic versions of the selection task. In the control training, a video has been used to explain the expected solutions according to classical logics, while in the experimental training the video also illustrates the potential consequences in the school context. Furthermore, a questionnaire has been addressed to participants in order to detect their expectations about the sequence and their perception of the methodology courses offered at university. Results indicate that most participants of both conditions have developed correct solutions in the post-test. Students of the experimental condition have judged more positively the teaching sequence and have expressed a stronger interest for methodology courses. An additional semi-structured interview has been conducted in order to collect further suggestions about the implemented teaching activity. The study indicates different epistemological perspectives in using the selection task as a useful tool for teaching and reasoning, as well as implications for the university methodology courses.

2014-11-6, Boissonnade, Romain

The Wason selection task is paradigmatic in the “bounded rationality” perspective, i.e. cognitive studies focused on finding and defining cognitive biases of human rationality. This task is considered as a clear illustration of human’s tendency to confirm hypotheses rather than to refute them by looking for contradictions in a systematic way. Nevertheless, several studies have shown that this pessimistic analysis is one-sided. For instance, a pragmatic stance is helpful to understand the subject’s point of view and active engagement into the task. A few researchers also tried to take into account the interactional and argumentative dimensions, as components of reasoning. The present work explore how a superficial enrichment of the task (multiplying the card items) should (1) imply more logical responses, (2) reveal the heterogeneous interpretations about the task, and (3) foster argumentative processes in dyadic situations. Our preliminary findings suggest that the task’s transformation does not lead people to the expected logical performance, but rather transforms the usual patterns of response, clarifies people’s interpretation of the task and enables deeper argumentative activities. Conducting research about the interactions between task’s shapes and social dynamics could show how deductive reasoning is part of an argumentative activity and is embedded in material and cultural contexts.