Explaining the Bat-and-Ball Problem to High-School Students Helps Them Solve It Intuitively, Regardless of Cognitive Capacity and Numeracy
Abstract
The bat-and-ball problem is notoriously difficult. Dual-process accounts of reasoning have used it to illustrate the need for deliberation to correct erroneous intuitions.
Recent developments have challenged this long-held assumption, with studies showing that some people were even able to intuitively provide the correct answer.
Cognitive capacity and numeracy have been suggested as interindividual factors accounting for differences in our ability to avoid being biased in similar problems.
Recently, a training intervention - presenting a short explanation on how to solve the bat-and-ball problem - was shown to sustainably improve reasoning accuracy in adult participants online, both intuitively and deliberatively.
In this preregistered study, we tested whether a similar intervention could help improve the reasoning performance of high schoolers in the Philippines (n = 80) while looking at the contribution of cognitive capacity and numeracy, using a two-response paradigm.
Cognitive ability and numeracy were both related to performance before the intervention and the improvement across groups. However, our intervention still had a significant effect when they were controlled for.