[Hypothesis testing processes in the reception strategy task and hypothesis evaluation task].

Abstract

This study investigated the common characteristics of reasoning in the two types of hypothesis testing tasks that contain similar passive information gathering procedures: reception strategy task and hypothesis evaluation task. Twenty subjects built their own hypothesis but were not allowed to choose instances to test the hypothesis in the reception strategy task, and different 20 subjects in the hypothesis evaluation task only evaluated a hypothesis generated by another person. In addition, subjects were asked to mark instances that they thought suitable to test the hypothesis on each trial. Results showed that subjects chose negative (-H) tests in the middle or later stage of the task. Otherwise, they chose confirmative tests throughout the task. Two possible interpretations of the results were offered that (a) experiencing the false negative (-H +T) made subjects to realize the usefulness of negative testing, and (b) there was a phased shift of the selection tendency between the earlier phase of extracting a possible hypothesis to the later phase of refining it.