Comparing Measures of Individual Differences in Performance of Conditional Reasoning

Abstract

This study examined the following issues: 1) The relation among different measures in psychometric ability tests (verbal comprehension and reasoning), computerised measure of comprehension skills and the subjects´ performance in a experimental task of conditional reasoning, 2) Whetehr or not good and por comprehenders sistematically differ in their performance in Wason´s selection task (Wason, 1966, 1968) and 3) The differential influence of rule content and instruction on the subjects´ performance in the selection task. 154 undergraduate students each completed three psychometric ability tests (DAT-VR, PMA-V and PMA-R), and a spanish versión of Gernsbacher´s Comprehension Battery. Subsequently each subject was given three problems corresponding to the content of the theree different rules (abstract content, thematic-premission and thematic-norm) and the instructions were also manipulated (verification/falsation vs. violation) (Valiña & cols., 1996). The results showed that: a) Performance in Wason´s selection task with abstract and thematic-permission content in terms of logical index is related to measures of the DAT-VR, b) In terms of differential analyses it was found that the logical index was considerably better in the higher reasoning-verbal group (DAT-VR) with abstract content and thematic-permission, but differences were not found in performance among good and por verbal comprehenders (PMA-V and Gernsbacher Comprehension Battery) or subjects with high and low scores in the PMA-R, and c) For he logical index and the matching index the principal effects of the content of the rule and the instructions were registered