Amb motiu del tancament d'estiu, la validació de documents es reprendrà a partir del 28 d'agost de 2026. Disculpeu les molèsties.
Con motivo del cierre de verano, la validación de documentos se reanudará a partir del 28 de agosto de 2026. Disculpad las molestias
Due to the summer closure, document validation will resume starting August 28, 2026. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Files

874440.pdf (432.76 KB)

Document type

Article

Version

Published version

Publication date

2025-01-02

Publication license

cc-by (c) Torres-Domínguez, M. N. et al., 2025
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/218896

Lawson’s Psychological Critical Thinking Exam as an instrument to improve critical thinking

Journal Title

Authors

Director/Tutor

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Related resource

https://doi.org/10.1344/reire.47238

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Critical thinking is vital in both science and daily life, being crucial for identifying anecdotal evidence, unfalsifiable hypotheses, biased data sampling, and unreliable causal connections. This study aimed to adapt Lawson’s revised version of the Psychological Critical Thinking Exam (PCTE) into Spanish, and to use it to assess improvement in Psychology students taking a module on reasoning. METHOD. Eighty-seven third-year Psychology students responded to the odd items of the original PCTE at the beginning of the term, and to the even items at the end. During the module, one session was dedicated to discussing Lawson’s critical thinking questions, evaluating the reliability of purportedly scientific statements. RESULTS. Students’ critical thinking skills improved both in problem detection (i.e., volunteers who initially failed to identify methodological problems, then did) and in accurately detecting the target problem (i.e., issues related to the critical thinking question addressed). DISCUSSION. We consider the PCTE a valuable tool for assessing and developing critical thinking among university students. Moreover, we suggest that this study itself could serve as didactic material for analysis by students, enhancing their critical thinking skills.

Subject

Pensament crític, Pseudociència

Subject (English)

Critical thinking, Pseudoscience

Citation

Collections

Articles publicats en revistes (Cognició, Desenvolupament i Psicologia de l'Educació)

Citation

TORRES DOMÍNGUEZ, Marta Natalia, BARBERIA, Itxaso and RODRÍGUEZ-FERREIRO, Javier. Lawson’s Psychological Critical Thinking Exam as an instrument to improve critical thinking. REIRE. Revista d'Innovació i Recerca en Educació. 2025. Vol. 18, num. 1-10. ISSN 1886-1946. [consulted: 9 of August of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/218896

Export metadata

JSON - METS

Share record