Beyond Reasoning; the Life, Times and Work

BEYOND REASONING This book tells the story of Peter Cathcart Wason, offeringunique insights into the life of the pioneering research psychologist credited for establishing a whole new field of science: the psychological study of reasoning. And this was just one of the major contributions he made to psychology. Covering much more than Wason’s academic work, the author, Ken Manktelow, paints a vivid and personal portrait of the man. The book traces Wason’s eclectic family history, steeped in Liberal politics and aristocratic antecedents, before moving through his service in the Second World War and the life-changing injuries he sustained at the end of it, and on to his abortive first attempt at a career and subsequent extraordinary success as a psychologist. Following a chronological structure with each chapter dedicated to a significant transition period in Wason’s life, Manktelow expertly weaves together personal narratives with Wason’s evolving intellectual interests and major scientific discoveries, and in doing so simultaneously traces the worlds that vanished during the twentieth century. A brilliant biography of one of the most renowned figures in cognitive psychology, this book will be of interest not only to students and scholars in thinking and reasoning, but to anyone interested in the life and lasting contribution of this celebrated scholar. Ken Manktelow was formerly Professor of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton, having begun his academic career with a PhD on reasoning, examined by Wason himself. He is the author of several books and articles on the topic. BEYOND REASONING The Life, Times and Work of Peter Wason, Pioneering Psychologist Ken Manktelow First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Ken Manktelow The right of Ken Manktelow to be identifiedas author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-65127-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-64574-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-12796-3 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by MPS Limited, Dehradun CONTENTS List of figures and tables viii Preface and style notes x 1 Creation 1 A remarkable thing 1 Family matters 4 2 Hell and heaven 9 The happiest days 9 Deported 11 Away, from school and home 15 3 End of a world 19 The home front 19 Private’s progress 23 4 Service 29 Training days 29 On the march 32 For you, Tommy… 36 5 The most important moment 39 Going to Oxford 39 Talk to her 46 vi Contents 6 Oxford to London, via Scotland 53 To Scotland 53 What can Peter do? 56 7 Curiosity pays 59 Falling into place 59 Instant impact 65 8 Life and chess 69 Life support 69 Chess men 72 9 Clearing the fog 84 Trees and lists 84 Threads 91 10 As easy as 2-4-6 97 Second strand 97 Dissent 102 11 Hits of the sixties 105 Cards on the table 105 Making moves 111 12 Moving on 115 Team work 115 Moves and losses 121 13 Fruits of the field 126 Momentum 126 On reflection 129 Advancing characters 134 14 Working with the problem 139 A sense of reality 139 Matching ties 142 15 Two minds 146 Setting out 146 Two processes 150 Contents vii 16 Reading and writing 156 Read the obscure 156 Thinking and writing 159 17 New problems 165 Thinking and reading 165 What is this thing called Thog? 171 18 Turning tides 175 The times 175 Let down 178 Carry on 182 19 The final chapter 185 Second time around 185 Coming of age 187 A Festsprache? 188 Blowing in the wind 190 A wish 192 His last bow 195 Afterword 199 Appendix 1 Wason’s family tree: Paternal line 201 Appendix 2 Wason’s family tree: Maternal line 203 Appendix 3 Wason’s Publications: Chronological list 205 Notes and sources 209 Subject index 221 Name index 224 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES 1.1 ‘The Brothers Wason’ cartoon, by F.H. Townsend. The caption accompanying it read: “HOGMANAY IN LONDON. At the New Year’s Eve Supper, given by the Senior Liberal Whip by way of consolation to the Scottish Members, the Brothers Wason bring down the house.” Courtesy of Armorer Wason. 5 2.1 Stowe School. (From Wikipedia, Creative Commons Share-alike Licence 2.0) 14 2.2 Dromoland Castle in recent times, as a hotel. (Public domain) 17 3.1 Bath in 1958, still showing war damage. Photo by Ben Brooksbank. From Wikipedia, CC as Fig. 2.1. 23 3.2 Officer-Cadet Wason in uniform. Courtesy of Armorer Wason. 24 4.1 The bridge over the Seine at Vernon today, looking towards the east bank. Photo by K. Manktelow. 35 5.1 New College Oxford. From Wikimedia Commons, originally from Flickr by Snapshotsofthepast. Licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0 42 5.2 Lord David Cecil in 1939. From Voxsart. Reproduced under licence from the National Portrait Gallery, London. 43 5.3 Claude Miéville’s portrait of Peter Wason, c. 1948. Courtesy of Armorer Wason 48 5.4 Peter and Marjorie Wason, taken by street photographers in London in the late 1940s. Courtesy of Armorer Wason 51 7.1 The Daily Express report of Soap wrappers’ “jig”. By permission 67 7.2 “Jig” cartoon in the Express the following day. By permission 68 9.1 The Observer Review feature, with Wason and family photographed in his study at Blackheath. By permission 92 List of figures and tables ix 11.1 Extract from a letter from Wason to the author about the relation between the selection task, the 2-4-6 task and Karl Popper, December 1993 109 12.1 Phil Johnson-Laird. Thanks to Alchetron 117 12.2 Wason’s first letter to Johnson-Laird in July 1964. Courtesy of Prof. P.N. Johnson-Laird 119 13.1 Selection task cards used in the ‘Mensa protocol’ experiment. The four at the top are the ones that were presented to the participants; the others are ones in the pack from which these four were drawn. Photo by K. Manktelow 131 15.1 Letter to Johnson-Laird during their collaboration on Psychology of Reasoning. Courtesy of Prof. P.N. Johnson-Laird 147 16.1 The title page from One problem in writing, a publication for a student society. Courtesy of Armorer Wason 161 17.1 Hand-drawn prototype of the Thog problem, from a letter to Johnson-Laird, May 1976. Courtesy of Prof. P.N. Johnson-Laird 172 19.1 Taking the stage at the Wason symposium, Plymouth, July 29, 1992: Johnson-Laird (left), Wason (centre) and Evans (right); photo by, and courtesy of, Prof. P. Legrenzi 189 19.2 A sad coda: Ballykilty, Wason’s spiritual home, in 2016. Courtesy of Sherry, FitzGerald & McMahon, Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland; thanks to Diarmuid McMahon 193 19.3 Marjorie and Peter Wason’s gravestone in Highgate Cemetery - illustrated with the selection task. Photos by K. Manktelow 199 TABLE 18.1 Wason’s papers in time: peer-reviewed scientific papers (left column) and others (right; b = book) 179 PREFACE AND STYLE NOTES This book is about one of the most influential research psychologists of modern times, but one whose name is little known outside the subject: Peter Cathcart Wason. He left a large legacy of ideas, findings, methods and people, and some of these ideas have filtered from psychological science into public culture. His work is still being carried on. Perversely, he would struggle to survive in the academic world of the present day, even though his contribution to knowledge is immense: he is principally responsible for establishing a whole field of research, for determining what its concerns are and how they are pursued, and for the production of ideas that have influenced not just other psychologists but people more generally. This state of affairs says as much about that world as it does about him. He was a scientist of extraordinary creativity, but who needed the right environment for this creativity to thrive and work its magic. In his own time, he found it, but in the present time, he would not. He would not be allowed to. The loss would be ours as well as his. He himself attempted to write an account of his life and work centred around his most famous creation, a reasoning problem known in the business as the Wason selection task. I shall describe this task in due course, and need only note for the present that some people have claimed that it is the most widely used experimental test in the psychology of reasoning, in the psychology of thinking more generally, or in the whole of experimental psychology. It is impossible to judge these claims accurately even when looking at just the published scientific literature: there are simply too many papers, articles, books and conference proceedings to count, or to devote one’s life to counting, and there is a never- ending stream of new ones, even today.

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