Facilitation on abstract versions of the selection task can be produced by deontic content. Jackson and Griggs (1990) claimed that this finding depends on the presence of an explicit negative on the not-q card. We hypothesized that the removal of the explicit negative from this card made its deontic status ambiguous. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a not-q card presenting implicit negative is not selected, and most subjects select the only card that appears to be relevant from a deontic point of view (i.e. the p card). Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the presence of the explicit negative on the not-q card is not necessary for producing facilitation, provided that the form of this card makes it clear that the not-q individual is a potential violator. Experiment 4 showed that a high success rate can be obtained even with a not-q card presenting an implicit negative. The results are discussed in terms of the specificity of reasoning in the deontic domain.
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