Deontic Logic and Deontic Goals in the Wason Selection Task

Domain-specific approaches of the Wason selection task (WST) have postulated specifically adapted schemas or Darwinian algorithms and abandoned a normative concept of rationality. We propose a flexible deontic logic theory (FDL theory), which is domain-specific but normative. The test of a prescriptive rule does not involve testing its truth, as in the standard WST, but rather selecting cases in which rules are being violated or followed. Building on former theories of the WST, we argue that the checking of prescriptive rules is based on deontic logic and on a goal-based mechanism of focusing either on conforming cases (cooperator detection) or on deviating cases (cheater detection). Experiment 1 provides support for four deontic types of conditionals. Experiment 2 provides evidence for the postulated interaction of deontic rules and goals, including evidence for cheater, cooperator, or double focus selections (p, q & non-q). These novel results favor FDL theory and challenge both domain-specific and domain-general theories of the WST.