Distinguishing types of superficial similarities: Different effects on the access and use of earlier problems.

When solving a problem, people often access and make use of an earlier problem. A common view is that superficial similarities may affect which earlier problem is accessed, but they have little or no effect on how that earlier problem is used. The reported experiments provide evidence against this view. Subjects learned four probability principles illustrated by word problems. Test problems varied in their similarity to the study problems in three ways: story lines, objects, and correspondence of objects' roles (i.e., whether similar objects filled similar roles). The superficial similarity of object correspondences had a large effect on use (Experiment 1), although it sometimes had little or no effect on access (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that two superficial similarities, story lines and object correspondences, differentially affect and use. These results suggest a more complex role of superficial similarity in problem solving and the need for distinguishing types of superficial similarities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of principle explanation and superficial similarity on analogical mapping in problem solving.

When solving a problem, people often make use of an earlier problem by mapping the objects from the earlier problem to the current one. Three experiments varied the superficial similarity between study and test problems to discriminate 2 views of the mapping process: direct mapping and near miss. Subjects studied 4 probability principles and study problems and solved test problems. The mapping of earlier problems on the basis of superficial similarity would lead to incorrect answers. In Experiment 1, evidence was found for the direct mapping view: Test problems with more similar objects to the study problems were more likely to be (inappropriately) mapped. However, in Experiment 2, in which the principle explanation was embedded in the study problem, this effect was reversed. In Experiment 3, 2 explanations for the differences in effect were contrasted. The discussion focuses on how principle explanation may affect analogical problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalizing from the use of earlier examples in problem solving.

Novices often are reminded of earlier examples during problem solving. Four experiments examine the hypothesis that the use of earlier examples promotes generalizations about problem types, thereby influencing what is learned about the domain. Subjects studied four probability principles with word problems and then tried to solve two test problems for each principle. For half of the first tests, cues indicated which study problem might be used. All second tests were uncued. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the first-test cuing led to an advantage on second-test performance for both the access and the use of relevant information. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that this cuing benefit is due to some generalization induced from using the study problem to solve the first-test problem. Discussion focuses on the distinctions about how problem comparisons are used in learning and the implications of the view that remindings lead to generalizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Having the Memory of an Elephant: Long-Term Retrieval and the Use of Analogues in Problem Solving.

The authors report 4 experiments exploring long-term analogical transfer from problem solutions in folk tales participants heard during childhood, many years before encountering the target problems. Substantial culture-specific analogical transfer was found when American and Chinese participants' performance was compared on isomorphs of problems solved in European versus Chinese folk tales. There was evidence of transfer even among participants who did not report being reminded of the source tale while solving the target problem. Comparisons of different versions of a target problem indicated that similarity of solution tool affected accessing, mapping, and executing components of problem solving, whereas similarity of goal object had only a moderate effect on accessing. High school students also evidenced greater transfer than did middle school students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of surface and structural feature matches on the access of story analogs.

Competing theories of analogical reasoning have disagreed on the relative contributions of surface and structural features to the access of previously read base stories when one is reading a current cue story. A key limitation of the prior work was that surface and structural feature overlap between bases and cues was not manipulated precisely. The present study systematically manipulated the number of surface and structural matches to determine their relative effect on access. Results involving reminding and reading time measures suggest that surface and lower-order structural features affected access about equally, at least when a higher-order relation (HOR) was shared between a base and cue story. When a HOR was not shared, surface feature overlap continued to affect access while lower-order structural features had a less reliable effect. Models of access might need to be adjusted to account for these phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Categorical perception effects induced by category learning

The authors report a series of studies designed to determine whether effects similar to those observed in the innate categorical perception of color and phonemes are induced during the learning of simple unidimensional categories and more complex multidimensional ones. In Experiment 1 no evidence was found for such effects when stimuli varied on 1 dimension. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated a within-category compression effect but no between category expansion effect for stimuli varying in 2 dimensions. Compression only was also shown in Experiment 4, which used pictures of actual objects. Multidimensional scaling analyses illustrate how within-category compression without expansion was sufficient to produce categorical clustering of items in the similarity space. These analyses also show that learning changed the dimensional structure of similarity space. Results are compared with those from other studies exploring similar phenomena and with neural network simulations.     

Analogical transfer, problem similarity, and expertise.

When we encounter a new problem, we are often reminded of similar problems solved earlier and may use the solution procedure from an old problem to solve a new one. Such analogical transfer, however, has been difficult to demonstrate empirically, even within a single experimental session. This article proposes a framework for conceptualizing analogical problem solving that can account for the conflicting findings in the literature. In addition, the framework leads to two predictions concerning the transfer behavior of experts and novices. These predictions concern both positive and negative transfer and are based on the different types of features included in the problem representations of experts and novices. First, when two problems share structural features but not surface features, spontaneous positive transfer should be more likely in experts than in novices. Second, when two problems share surface but not structural features, spontaneous negative transfer should be stronger for novices than for experts. These predictions were supported by the results of three experiments involving college students solving a complex arithmetic word problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning from mistakes: Inducing analogous solution failures to a source problem produces later successes in analogical transfer.

In 4 experiments the use of analogical problem solving to facilitate the solution to a problem that usually results in persistent solution failures without hints was investigated. The results of Exps 1–3 indicate that spontaneous transfer was facilitated by a manipulation of the surface form of the source problem that tends to induce initial solution failures analogous to those produced to the target problem. Surface similarity of content words and diagrams had no effect on transfer in Exps 1–3. In Exp 4, facilitation of spontaneous transfer was not obtained when source solution failures were prevented. The importance of failed solutions in problem representation and the relationship between problem representation and surface similarity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity and friendship: A follow-up study.

This study repeated the procedures of an earlier study (see 35: 2117) that showed similarity of objectively measured (Edwards Personality Preference Schedule) personality characteristics to be a significant correlate of friendship. Experiment I tested the repeatability of this finding with a similar sample (college freshmen) and the results again supported the similarity principle. Experiment II tested the generalizability of the earlier finding. The procedures were applied to a different population (college seniors), and the results failed to confirm the similarity hypothesis. Personality differences between freshmen and seniors can be viewed as a function of increased social and emotional maturity on the part of seniors (Izard, 1962). Perhaps the more "mature" person has less need to see his personality characteristics reflected in his friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of causal models in analogical inference.

Computational models of analogy have assumed that the strength of an inductive inference about the target is based directly on similarity of the analogs and in particular on shared higher order relations. In contrast, work in philosophy of science suggests that analogical inference is also guided by causal models of the source and target. In 3 experiments, the authors explored the possibility that people may use causal models to assess the strength of analogical inferences. Experiments 1-2 showed that reducing analogical overlap by eliminating a shared causal relation (a preventive cause present in the source) from the target increased inductive strength even though it decreased similarity of the analogs. These findings were extended in Experiment 3 to cross-domain analogical inferences based on correspondences between higher order causal relations. Analogical inference appears to be mediated by building and then running a causal model. The implications of the present findings for theories of both analogy and causal inference are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problem-specific information and the development of problem-type schemata.

Examined the proposition that problem-type schemata include both problem-specific and abstract information. Recognition priming was used to capture schema acquisition as it evolves in analogical problem solving. Priming was used to show that Ss form associations in memory between problem-specific sentences drawn from analogous problems. In Exp 1, Ss formed such associations but only when analogical transfer was facilitated. In Exp 2, Ss formed associations only among sentences that related to abstract problem information. In Exp 3, Ss did not form associations among sentences that interfered with access to abstract information during transfer. In Exp 4, Ss accessed problem-specific sentences in problem-type schemata when given new problems of the same type. The results suggest that problem solvers retain problem-specific information in schemata because the information affords access to abstract information during transfer. Results are discussed in terms of a conservative generalization model of schema acquisition that emphasizes the importance of problem-specific information in problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practice schedules and subgoal instantiation in cascaded problem solving.

Fluent problem solving depends on efficient instantiation of subgoals for executing component skills. In 3 experiments, the authors examined how component-skill practice schedules and problem-solving demands interact to affect fluency in mental calculation. Participants practiced Boolean rules in blocked or random practice schedules and then solved problems that varied in the need to switch rules and in preview of upcoming operators. In Experiment 1, participants more quickly solved problems requiring repeated use of a single rule than problems using multiple rules, but practice schedules had no effect. In Experiment 2, random practice produced a transfer benefit for multiple-rule problems that allowed operator preview. Experiment 3 verified the importance of preview. These results suggest that when participants can rapidly switch rules, they achieve fluency by overlapping steps in a manner analogous to perceptual-motor skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributed representations of structure: A theory of analogical access and mapping.

This article describes an integrated theory of analogical access and mapping, instantiated in a computational model called LISA (Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies). LISA represents predicates and objects as distributed patterns of activation that are dynamically bound into propositional structures, thereby achieving both the flexibility of a connectionist system and the structure sensitivity of a symbolic system. The model treats access and mapping as types of guided pattern classification, differing only in that mapping is augmented by a capacity to learn new correspondences. The resulting model simulates a wide range of empirical findings concerning human analogical access and mapping. LISA also has a number of inherent limitations, including capacity limits, that arise in human reasoning and suggests a specific computational account of these limitations. Extensions of this approach also account for analogical inference and schema induction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analogical reasoning in young children.

Assessed the performance of 4- and 5-year-olds on geometric analogy tasks. Each task consisted of 16 analogy problems that were presented in a manipulative, gamelike context and that used attribute blocks that varied on the dimensions of color, size, and shape. Experiment 1 demonstrated that many of the preschoolers were capable of applying analogical reasoning in the solution of geometric analogy problems of the form A:B::C:?. We also found that children who did not consistently reason analogically showed evidence of a reasoning strategy that was governed by a hierarchical rule structure. Experiment 2, in which a modified version of the geometric analogy task in Experiment 1 was used, confirmed the findings of the initial experiment with regard to the analogical reasoning ability of 4- and 5-year-olds. The rule structure was verified for nonanalogical reasoners, whereas analogical reasoners generally exhibited no consistent pattern in their response errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meta-analogical transfer: Transfer between episodes of analogical reasoning.

Meta-analogical transfer (i.e., transfer due to forming an analogy between analogies) was demonstrated in 4 experiments. Results suggest that the basis of meta-analogical transfer was transfer of predicate mappings (mappings of the concepts used to represent analogies) between separate episodes of analogical reasoning. Episodes of letter-string analogy problem solving of the form "If abc were changed into abd, how would you change kji in the same way?" were used. In Experiment 1 participants generated solutions in 2 separate analogical reasoning episodes. Order of presentation effects provided evidence of transfer of predicate mappings. Experiments 2a and 2b reinforced these findings, demonstrating transfer when mappings for the 1st analogy were directly manipulated by having participants justify an answer to the 1st analogy. Experiment 3 demonstrated that a mapping of nonidentical predicates (successor to predecessor) can also be transferred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schema induction in children's analogical problem solving.

Three experiments were conducted to explore the ability of school-age children to transfer solutions to analogous problems. This research addressed the issue of how the variability of procedural features in source examples facilitates the induction of a general problem schema and, thus, promotes subsequent transfer. Children were asked to solve a series of problems analogous to A. S. Luchins's (1942) classic waterjar problems. All the problems shared a common isomorphic structure and a general solution but required either similar or different specific procedures. Children who experienced problems with variant procedural features were more likely than those who experienced problems with invariant procedural features to construct a general problem schema and to solve novel problems requiring unfamiliar procedures. This research sheds light on the cognitive mechanisms involved in strategy generalization and analogical problem solving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract versus concrete information as the basis for transfer in problem solving: Comment on Fong and Nisbett (1991).

G. T. Fong and R. E. Nisbett (see record 1991-17515-001) claimed that human problem solvers use abstract principles to accomplish transfer to novel problems, based on findings that Ss were able to apply the law of large numbers to problems from a different domain from that in which they had been trained. However, the abstract-rules position cannot account for results from other studies of analogical transfer that indicate that the content or domain of a problem is important both for retrieving previously learned analogs (e.g., K. J. Holyoak and K. Koh, 1987; M. Keane, 1985, 1987; B. H. Ross, 1989) and for mapping base analogs onto target problems (Ross, 1989). It also cannot account for Fong and Nisbett's own findings that different-domain but not same-domain transfer was impaired after a 2-wk delay. It is proposed that the content of problems is more important in problem solving than supposed by Fong and Nisbett. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constraints on accessing abstract source information: Instantiation of principles facilitates children's analogical transfer.

An abstract principle provided as source information alone often fails to enhance analogical transfer. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the circumstances under which an abstract statement promotes analogical problem solving in children. External instantiation (providing concrete examples, with similar or dissimilar surface features along with an abstract statement) and internal instantiation (encouraging learners to generate concrete examples of the abstract statement) were equally effective in facilitating transfer. Adding explicit causal relations in the source statements did not significantly enhance transfer. These results suggest that abstract information by itself is less accessible because it lacks superficial features similar to the target problem and lacks example-specific contextual information. Educational implications of the effects of external and internal instantiations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategic consultation: The evolution and application of an efficient approach.

Examines how strategic therapy principles can be applied to consultation practice. These principles focus on a conceptual shift in thinking about a problem and its solution, which allows of more effective and often more innovative solutions to consultation problems. In the 1st principle, failed attempted solutions are seen as reinforcing and maintaining problems. The 2nd principle is the notion that it is necessary to develop solutions that implement 2nd order change. The 3rd concept proposes that it is important to change the consultee's perceptions of the problem in order to assist in developing and implementing new solutions. These principles of strategic consultation can also be applied in many settings and can be incorporated in many other consultation approaches. These principles focus on a conceptual shift in thinking about problems and their solutions. This shift allows for more effective, efficient, and often more innovative solutions to consultation problems. A step-by-step procedure is presented. A case example demonstrates how the approach can be implemented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)