People in everyday life are not evaluating rules. They evaluate cases, for whether a case fits a rule.
So, when being told:
"Which card(s) must you turn over in order to test that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is blue?"
they translate it to:
"Check the cards that show an even number on one face to see whether their opposite face is blue and vice versa"
Based on this, many would naturally pick the blue card (to test the direct case), and the 8 card (to test the "vice versa" case).
They wont check the red to see if there's an odd number there that invalidates the formulation as a general rule, because they're not in the mindset of testing a general rule.
Would they do the same if they had more familiarity with rule validation in everyday life or if the had a more verbose and explicit explanation of the goal?
Yeah maybe if you phrased it as "Which card(s) must you turn over in order to ensure that all odd-numbered cards are blue?" you'd get a better response?
Exactly. We invented rule-based machines so that we could have a thing that follows rules, and adheres strictly to them, all day long.
Im not sure why people keep comparing machine-behaviour to human's. Its like Economic models that assume perfect rationality... yeah that's not reality mate.