Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

It has been suggested that groups can evaluate multiple hypotheses better than individuals. The present study employed Wason's (1960) 2-4-6 task to examine the effects of multiple hypotheses in scientific induction. Subjects worked either individually or in four-member interacting groups. Subjects were also instructed to test either a single or a pair of hypotheses. The results indicate that groups perform significantly better than individuals. When testing multiple hypotheses, groups were more likely to determine the target hypothesis than individuals. Interacting groups generated more positive tests that received negative feedback and received more disconfirmation than individuals. When multiple hypotheses were tested, interacting groups used greater amounts of diagnostic tests than individuals. Interacting groups appear to search their experiment space and evaluate the evidence received better than individuals.