Still no solution to non-verbal measures of analogical reasoning: Reply to Walker and Gopnik (2017) (original) (raw)

Analogical Reasoning: What Develops? A Review of Research and Theory

Child Development, 1991

Analogical reasoning in children has been measured in 2 ways, either using the classical a:b::c:d item analogy task found on IQ tests, or by asking children to solve target problems after learning about analogous problems and their solutions. Theories based on the 2 kinds of measure are discussed and the evidence for them is assessed. It is concluded that structural views of analogical development, which have traditionally suggested that analogical reasoning is late developing, are wrong. Knowledge-based accounts of what develops are more appealing but cannot completely explain failures on analogical tasks. An account of analogical development that allows early analogical competence but that also postulates the later development pi metalogical skills may provide the best account of the data. Â I would like to thank Ann Brown for her interest and encouragement, and Paul Harris, David Moshman, Robert Steinberg, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Detecting Bimodality in the Analogical Reasoning Performance of Elementary Schoolchildren

International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1997

This paper reports on modelling six frequency distributions representing the analogical reasoning performance of four different samples of elementary schoolchildren. A two-component model outperformed a one-component model in all investigated data sets, discriminatin g accurate performers with high success probabilities and inaccurate performers with low success probabilities, whereas for two data sets a three-component model provided the best t. In a treatment-co ntrol group data set, the treatment group comprised a larger proportion of accurate performers than the control group, whereas the success probabilities of the two latent classes were nearly identical in both groups. In a repeated-mea sures data set, both the success probabilities of the two latent classes and the proportion of accurate performers increased from the rst to the second test session. The results provided a rst indication of a transition in the development of analogical reasoning in elementary schoolchildren.

Analogical reasoning in children

Journal of Pragmatics, 1998

This slim book is chock full of original ideas about analogical reasoning in children. It is written very clearly, and the arguments are laid out in a straightforward manner. The book appears in the Erlbaum series Essays in Developmental Psychology, although author is avowedly not a developmentalist. She believes that analogical reasoning does not develop over age, and she sets out to support this thesis. Much of what I write in these pages deals with the nature of the claims and arguments she brings forth to bear on her thesis.

Indicators of Discontinuous Change in the Development of Analogical Reasoning

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1997

In a longitudinal study, five indicators of a transition in the development of analogical reasoning were examined in young elementary school children, (a) bimodality and (b) inaccessibility in the frequency distributions of test performance, and in the responses of the transitional subjects, respectively, (c) sudden jumps, (d) anomalous variance, and (e) critical slowing down. An open-ended geometric-analogies test was administered eight times during a period of six months to eighty children in Grades 1 and 2 (six-to eight-year-olds). Strong evidence for bimodality was found in the distribution of the test scores and weaker evidence for inaccessibility. In the performance curves of the transitional subjects sudden jumps were demonstrated. Furthermore, the transitional subjects displayed a temporary increase of inconsistent solution behavior and solution time near the sudden jump. The characteristic changes in the analogy performance of the transitional subjects were interpreted as a strategy shift.

Analogical processes in human thinking and learning

Towards a Theory of Thinking, 2010

Similarity and association are two great forces of mental organization that hold across species. Although humans probably experience the same kinds of intuitive connections as do hamsters, our species also experiences a more sophisticated form of each of these two ...

Neuroscientific insights into the development of analogical reasoning

In a large sample of children spanning ages 6-18 years, this study demonstrates pronounced age-related improvements in analogical reasoning between ages 6 and 10, and continued improvement until mid-adolescence. • We used neuroimaging to distinguish among several plausible cognitive accounts of the development of analogical reasoning. • This work demonstrates that the development of analogical reasoning is associated with increased engagement of the left anterior inferior prefrontal cortex (BA 47/45), previously shown to be associated with the ability to select among competing semantic associations. • Improvements over this age range were not observed in brain regions linked to domain-general processes underlying response control or relational thinking. 1 | INTRODUCTION Analogical reasoning, or the ability to find correspondences between individual objects as well as their relationships (Gentner, 1983;

Analogies—Integrating cognitive abilities

2009

Analogical reasoning is a highly sophisticated cognitive process and it could be the missing link for the understanding of cognitive abilities in natural complex systems. In many current approaches for modeling analogies and analogical reasoning, cognitive abilities are examined in isolation from related issues in order to control the environment and the underlying context. Although these research endeavors are successful in various aspects and applications, it seems as if each result of modeling a particular ability minimizes the chances to reach overall goals like modeling human-level intelligence. With this workshop we aim to bring together researchers who are working in the field of analogical reasoning and are relating their models to other cognitive abilities. This workshop focuses on analogy as an integrating basis for human cognition.