Common and specific features in pictorial analogies

Pictures belonging to different domains (cups and persons), as well as pictures belonging to the same domains (cups or persons only), were used to construct analogies of various paradigms. Pictures from different domains shared three common features, while pictures within each domain had two features specific to that domain. When no specific feature change was introduced, an asymmetry of the paradigms IA cup is to B cup as R person is to S person and P person is to Q person as C cup is to D cup) was obtained as an extension of the theory of metaphoricity (Ortony, 1979) predicted. When specific feature changes were introduced, however, the obtained results were not as the extended theory would predict. An alternative model that emphasizes the function of a set of reference feature changes in extraction and comparison of the feature changes that may exist in the first and second terms was proposed to account for the experimental findings.