Last week I posed a challenge to my readers: to have a go at “The Cash Register Exercise“, an uncritical inference test. I promised to divulge the correct answers yesterday, but unfortunately circumstances intervened and prevented me from doing so, and so, with my apologies, I post them today.
For those of you who missed last week’s post, I repeat the instructions and the exercise here:
To complete the exercise, read the following story. Below it are 12 statements about the story. After you read the story, determine whether each of the 12 statements is
Allow yourself no more than 5 minutes to complete the exercise. Ready? Here goes:
The Story
A businessman had just turned off the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opened a cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up, and the man sped away. A member of the police force was notified promptly.
12 Statements about the Story
I warned readers that only twice when I’ve conducted this exercise has anyone gotten every answer right.
I provide the answer key on the right within this post, displayed upside down so as not to spoil things for those of you still trying to figure it out. To see the text right-side up, you can either turn your computer screen upside down (just kidding) or simply place your cursor over the answer key and the answer will appear as alt-text.
I’ll leave you to mull the answers over and will plan to discuss them next week. Out of curiosity, did anyone out there get them all right? Just wondering.
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