Enabling spontaneous analogy through heuristic change

Despite analogy playing a central role in theories of problem solving, learning and education, demonstrations of spontaneous analogical transfer are rare. Here, we present a theory of heuristic change for spontaneous analogical transfer, tested in four experiments that manipulated the experience of failure to solve a source problem prior to attempting a target problem. In Experiment 1, participants solved more source problems that contained an additional financial constraint designed to signal the inappropriateness of moves that maximized progress towards the goal. This constraint also led to higher rates of spontaneous analogical transfer to a superficially similar problem. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the effects of this constraint extend to superficially and structurally different analogs. Experiment 4 generalized the finding to a non-analogous target problem that also benefitted from inhibiting maximizing moves. The results indicate that spontaneous transfer can arise through experience during the solution of a source problem that alters the heuristic chosen for solving both analogical and non-analogical target problems.     

The Role of Surface Similarity in Analogical Retrieval: Bridging the Gap Between the Naturalistic and the Experimental Traditions

Blanchette and Dunbar (2000) have claimed that when participants are allowed to draw on their own source analogs in the service of analogical argumentation, retrieval is less constrained by surface similarity than traditional experiments suggest. In two studies, we adapted this production paradigm to control for the potentially distorting effects of analogy fabrication and uneven availability of close and distant sources in memory. Experiment 1 assessed whether participants were reminded of central episodes from popular movies while generating analogies for superficially similar versus superficially dissimilar target situations. In Experiment 2, we modified this procedure to assess the retrieval of autobiographic memories, more familiar to participants than fictional episodes. Both studies revealed a strong effect of surface similarity on the retrieval of participants' own sources, thus suggesting that the superficial bias typically observed in experimental studies—and simulated by most computational models—does not originate in a lack of ecological validity.     

Promoting interdomain analogical transfer: When creating a problem helps to solve a problem

Research on analogical thinking has devised several ways of promoting an abstract encoding of base analogs, thus rendering them more retrievable during later encounters with similar situations lacking surface similarities. Recent studies have begun to explore ways of facilitating transfer at retrieval time, which could facilitate the retrieval of distant analogs learned within contexts that were not specially directed to emphasize their abstract structure. Such studies demonstrate that comparing a target problem to an analogous problem helps students retrieve base analogs that lack surface similarities. To devise more portable ways of enhancing analogical transfer, Experiment 1 replicated Kurtz and Loewenstein’s (Memory & Cognition, 35, 334–341, 2007) target-comparison procedure with an additional condition in which participants compared the target to a nonanalogous problem before attempting to reach its solution. Although comparing two analogous targets outperformed the standard transfer condition in promoting analogical transfer, comparing nonanalogous problems did not yield a transfer advantage. Based on prior studies that showed that the activity of creating analogous problems during their initial encoding elicits a more abstract representation of base analogs, in Experiment 2 we assessed whether constructing a second analogous target problem at retrieval time helps participants retrieve superficially dissimilar base analogs. As predicted, target invention increased the retrieval of distant sources. In both experiments we found an association between the quality of the generated schemas and the probability of retrieving a distant base analog from memory.     

Mathematical problem solving by analogy.

We report the results of 2 experiments and a verbal protocol study examining the component processes of solving mathematical word problems by analogy. College students first studied a problem and its solution, which provided a potential source for analogical transfer. Then they attempted to solve several analogous problems. For some problems, subjects received one of a variety of hints designed to reduce or eliminate the difficulty of some of the major processes hypothesized to be involved in analogical transfer. Our studies yielded 4 major findings. First, the process of mapping the features of the source and target problems and the process of adapting the source solution procedure for use in solving the target problem were clearly distinguished: (a) Successful mapping was found to be insufficient for successful transfer and (b) adaptation was found to be a major source of transfer difficulty. Second, we obtained direct evidence that schema induction is a natural consequence of analogical transfer. The schema was found to co-exist with the problems from which it was induced, and both the schema and the individual problems facilitated later transfer. Third, for our multiple-solution problems, the relation between analogical transfer and solution accuracy was mediated by the degree of time pressure exerted for the test problems. Finally, mathematical expertise was a significant predictor of analogical transfer, but general analogical reasoning ability was not. The implications of the results for models of analogical transfer and for instruction were considered.     

Cognitive consequences of individual differences in arousal asymmetry

Prior research has demonstrated that semantic organization in the right hemisphere (RH) is more diffuse and specialized for distant semantic associates than is semantic organization in the left hemisphere (LH). The present research explored individual differences in this regard. If the RH is more specialized for distant semantic associates, then individuals with a more active RH should display greater activation of distant semantic associations. Two experiments were conducted to examine this issue. In both studies a line bisection task was used to assess arousal asymmetry. In Experiment 1, greater RH activation was associated with the ability to generate remote associates to three word stimuli. In Experiment 2, relatively greater RH activation was associated with enhanced priming of distant semantic associates. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate that arousal asymmetry is an individual difference variable that is related to variability in semantic organization and retrieval.     

Using dual-process theory and analogical transfer to explain facilitation on a hypothetico-deductive reasoning task

Using the analogical transfer paradigm, the present study investigated the competing explanations of Girotto and Legrenzi (Psychological Research 51: 129–135, 1993) and Griggs, Platt, Newstead, and Jackson (Thinking and Reasoning 4: 1–14, 1998) for facilitation on the SARS version of the THOG problem, a hypothetico-deductive reasoning task. Girotto and Legrenzi argue that facilitation is based on logical analysis of the task [System 2 reasoning in Evans’s (Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7: 454–459, 2003) dual-process account of reasoning] while Griggs et al. maintain that facilitation is due to an attentional heuristic produced by the wording of the problem (System 1 reasoning). If Girotto and Legrenzi are correct, then System 2 reasoning, which is volitional and responsible for deductive reasoning, should be elicited, and participants should comprehend the solution principle of the THOG task and exhibit analogical transfer. However, if Griggs et al. are correct, then System 1 reasoning, which is responsible for heuristic problem solving strategies such as an attentional heuristic, should occur, and participants should not abstract the solution principle and transfer should not occur. Significant facilitation (68 and 82% correct) was only observed for the two SARS source problems, but significant analogical transfer did not occur. This lack of transfer suggests that System 1 reasoning was responsible for the facilitation observed in the SARS problem, supporting Griggs et al.’s attentional heuristic explanation. The present results also underscore the explanatory value of using analogical transfer rather than facilitation as the criterion for problem understanding.     

The effects of similarity of theme and instantiation in analogical reasoning.

The influence of 2 types of structural similarity on analogical reasoning was examined. The theme of a story is a structural component that constrains other relationships in the story. Another structural component is the way in which the theme is implemented. Participants received pairs of stories that varied in the similarity of these two components. Participants in Experiment 1 judged stories containing similar themes as more analogous than stories with dissimilar themes. Likewise, stories with similar implementations were judged as more analogous than stories with dissimilar implementations. Experiment 2 revealed a similar pattern when participants had the opportunity to transfer information from source to target stories. Greater transfer was seen for stories with similar themes than for stories with dissimilar themes. Greater transfer was also seen for stories with similar implementations of different themes than for stories with different implementations.     

Individual differences in cognitive-flexibility: the influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate, trait psychoticism and working memory on attentional set-shifting

Individual differences in psychophysiological function have been shown to influence the balance between flexibility and distractibility during attentional set-shifting [e.g., Dreisbach et al. (2005). Dopamine and cognitive control: The influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate and dopamine gene polymorphisms on perseveration and distractibility. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119(2), 483-490]. Here we replicate both the facilitatory and detrimental influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate upon switch costs across the two distinct conditions of a set-shifting task. We extend this by presenting additional, putatively dopamine related, individual differences that also influence attentional control. Whereas trait psychoticism showed a pattern of effects opposite to that of eyeblink rate, greater working memory served to decrease switch costs across both conditions. These results highlight the need for further exploration of the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission and component processes involved in such attentional paradigms, and illustrates the importance of considering individual differences in cognitive control.     

Analogical transfer from a simulated physical system

Previous research has consistently found that spontaneous analogical transfer is strongly tied to concrete and contextual similarities between the cases. However, that work has largely failed to acknowledge that the relevant factor in transfer is the similarity between individuals' mental representations of the situations rather than the overt similarities between the cases themselves. Across several studies, we found that participants were able to transfer strategies learned from a perceptually concrete simulation of a physical system to a task with very dissimilar content and appearance. This transfer was reflected in better performance on the transfer task when its underlying dynamics were consistent rather than inconsistent with the preceding training task. Our data indicate that transfer in these tasks relies on the perceptual and spatial nature of the training task but does not depend on direct interaction with the system, with participants performing equally well after simply observing the concrete simulation. We argue that participants generated a spatial, dynamic, and force-based mental model while interacting with the training simulation and tended to spontaneously interpret the transfer task according to this primed model. Unexpectedly, our data consistently show that transfer was independent of reported recognition of the analogy between tasks: Although such recognition was associated with better overall performance, it was not associated with better transfer (in terms of applying an appropriate strategy). Together, these findings suggest that analogical transfer between overtly dissimilar cases may be much more common--and much more relevant to our cognitive processing--than is generally assumed.     

Accessing source information in analogical problem-solving

Several studies showed that people presented with source information fail to apply it to an analogous target problem unless they are instructed to use the source. Seven experiments were carried out to assess whether such a lack of spontaneous transfer occurs because individuals do not activate the source during the target task or because they do not realize the source-target relationship. Experiment 1 compared a condition in which the source was activated with no cue about the source-target connection to conditions in which subjects were informed about this connection. Results suggested that the lack of spontaneous transfer does not depend on failure in activating source information. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 were devised to falsify this finding by activating the source closer and closer to the target and by focusing participants' attention toward the relevant aspects of the source. Experiments 5, 6, and 7 were aimed at stressing source-target correspondences by introducing surface similarities. All experiments showed that the mere activation of the source does not facilitate analogical transfer. Results suggested that two processes should be distinguished in the access phase of analogical problem-solving: Source retrieval and identification of the source-target connection.     

Surface and structural similarity in analogical transfer

Two experiments investigated factors that influence the retrieval and use of analogies in problem solving, Experiment 1 demonstrated substantial spontaneous analogical transfer with a delay of several days between presentation of the source and target analogues. Experiment 2 examined the influence of different types of similarity between the analogues. A mechanism for retrieval of source analogues is proposed, based on summation of activation from features shared with a target problem. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that both structural features, which play a causal role in determining possible problem solutions, and salient surface features, which do not have a causal role, influence spontaneous selection of an analogue. Structural features, however, have a greater impact than do surface features on a problem solver’s ability to use an analogue once its relevance has been pointed out.     

Analogical problem solving: a hierarchical analysis of procedural similarity

Similarity between source analogues and target problems is a central theme in the research on analogical transfer. Much of the theorizing and research has focused on the effects of superficial and structural similarity on transfer. The present research is an attempt to analyze systematically another critical type of similarity, namely, procedural similarity, and to examine its effects on the executing process. Participants viewed a schematic picture as a source model, interpreted its conceptual meaning, and then attempted to solve a problem to which the conceptual information from the source model could be applied. The results indicate that the ease with which a source solution was implemented was largely determined by the abstraction level at which a solution was shared by a source analogue and the target problem. The degree of procedural similarity was also found to influence the executing process in analogical transfer. A conceptual model concerning the function of procedural similarity as a utilizational constraint in analogical problem solving is proposed.     

Relationship between working memory capacity and contingent involuntary orienting

Individual differences in working memory capacity are related to the ability to control attention; where less working memory capacity is associated with less attentional control. A well-known demonstration of attentional control is contingent involuntary orienting (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992), which is the finding that visuospatial attention is captured by a salient peripheral cue, but only if the cue is featurally similar to the target of search and not if the cue is featurally dissimilar. This control of attention and ability to resist shifting attention towards an irrelevant visual cue is believed to be moderated by attentional settings for target-specific features. This study establishes that working memory capacity is related to contingent involuntary orienting of attention. Lower working memory capacity was associated with larger stimulus-driven cueing effects at short cue-to-target onset asynchronies, than at longer asynchronies, suggesting working memory capacity was associated with the ability to control covert orienting of attention at early processing stages.     

Reducing structural-element salience on a source problem produces later success in analogical transfer: What role does source difficulty play?

Two experiments in reasoning by analogy were conducted to study the role of inducing source difficulty by reducing the salience of the source's structural elements. Three nonexclusive hypotheses were tested. According to the first, a difficult source problem improves analogical transfer because it increases the probability that the subject will notice the similarity between the source and the target. For example, errors made on both the source and the target can enhance the subject's awareness of the similarity between the two problems. According to the second hypothesis, a source that is difficult to solve is memorized better than an easier source. According to the third, source-problem difficulty affects the degree of abstractness in the representation of the solution elaborated by subjects. Experiment 1 showed that the higher frequency of spontaneous transfer between the source and the target when the source problem was difficult (Gick & McGarry, 1992) could be replicated in a cued-transfer situation. Experiment 2 showed that subjects given a difficult source, one in which the important element was not very salient, were better at categorizing isomorphic problems on the basis of structural features than were subjects given an easy source. The discussion deals with the implications of these results for the hypotheses tested and, more generally, for reasoning by analogy and education in general.     

儿童问题解决中的类比迁移

儿童问题解决中的类比迁移是儿童认知发展中的一个基本问题,但在儿童发展研究中却一直没有得到足够的重视。在对儿童问题解决中的类比迁移研究进行回顾和总结的基础上,特别是仔细分析最近十年里的类比迁移研究,该文总结出了儿童问题解决中类比迁移研究的发展趋势,主要包括从探讨迁移是否存在到验证迁移是一种早期能力、从关注迁移的年龄差异到关注促进迁移的有关因素、从关注迁移是否是基本能力到关注迁移的加工机制、从描述迁移技能到领域概化、从关注近迁移到关注远迁移。最后,该文对未来儿童问题解决中的类比迁移研究进行了展望     

What meaning means for same and different: Analogical reasoning in humans (Homo sapiens), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Thus far, language- and token-trained apes (e.g., D. Premack, 1976; R. K. R. Thompson, D. L. Oden, & S. T. Boysen, 1997) have provided the best evidence that nonhuman animals can solve, complete, and construct analogies, thus implicating symbolic representation as the mechanism enabling the phenomenon. In this study, the authors examined the role of stimulus meaning in the analogical reasoning abilities of three different primate species. Humans (Homo sapiens), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) completed the same relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) tasks with both meaningful and nonmeaningful stimuli. This discrimination of relations-between-relations serves as the basis for analogical reasoning. Meaningfulness facilitated the acquisition of analogical matching for human participants, whereas individual differences among the chimpanzees suggest that meaning can either enable or hinder their ability to complete analogies. Rhesus monkeys did not succeed in the RMTS task regardless of stimulus meaning, suggesting that their ability to reason analogically, if present at all, may be dependent on a dimension other than the representational value of stimuli.     

Seek,and ye shall find: Differences between spontaneous and voluntary analogical retrieval

The present study tackles two overlooked aspects of analogical retrieval: (a) whether argumentation activities elicit a spontaneous search for analogical sources, and (b) whether strategic search can relax the superficial bias typically obtained in experimental studies of analogical retrieval. In Experiment 1, participants had to generate arguments for a target situation under three conditions: without indication to use analogies, with indication to use analogies, and with indication to search for sources within domains provided by the experimenters. Results showed that while voluntary search yields analogical retrievals reliably, the argumentation activity seldom elicits spontaneous remindings. A second set of results demonstrated that the superficial bias can be strategically relaxed, leading to a majority of distant retrievals. Experiment 2 replicated this result with the instruction to search within domains different from that of the target, and without providing a list of specific domains. The theoretical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

Source Monitoring: ERP Evidence for Greater Reactivity to Nontarget Information in Older Adults

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were collected concurrently with stimulus presentation during a source monitoring task. Younger adults were less likely than older adults to make source monitoring errors and their ERP records showed far greater discrimination between target stimuli and familiar but nontarget foils. Older adults not only made more source errors but produced high amplitude late positivities to the nontarget foils even when these foils were correctly rejected. Under divided attention conditions, younger adults performance was similar to that of the older adults both behaviorally and electrophysiologically. These data illustrate the role that attentional resources play in the ability to inhibit response tendencies and suggest that age differences in source monitoring may be more related to attentional control than inefficiencies in the encoding of contextual information. As well, they suggest that the ERP late positivity may represent a more general response to item salience rather than serve as an index of recollection as is the current view.