Analogical encoding: Facilitating knowledge transfer and integration (original) (raw)
Related papers
Memory & cognition, 2007
People often fail to retrieve examples analogous to a current problem or situation. There is good evidence that comparing structurally matching cases facilitates subsequent analogical access. However, current approaches offer little at the time of memory search to promote retrieval of a routinely encoded analogous source. We adapted Gick and Holyoak's (1980, 1983) classic paradigm to investigate whether comparing two unsolved problems at test promotes retrieval of a single previously studied analogue. In Experiment 1, comparison of test problems facilitated analogical problem solving. Experiment 2 showed that comparison is the critical factor since solving two test problems separately proved ineffective. In Experiment 3, comparing two problems led to greater success for participants who read a prior analogous story than those who did not, demonstrating specifically that comparison facilitates retrieval. The three studies show that analogical access is powerfully determined by pr...
Learning and transfer: A general role for analogical encoding
Journal of Educational Psychology, 2003
Teaching by examples and cases is widely used to promote learning, but it varies widely in its effectiveness. The authors test an adaptation to case-based learning that facilitates abstracting problemsolving schemas from examples and using them to solve further problems: analogical encoding, or learning by drawing a comparison across examples. In 3 studies, the authors examined schema abstraction and transfer among novices learning negotiation strategies. Experiment 1 showed a benefit for analogical learning relative to no case study. Experiment 2 showed a marked advantage for comparing two cases over studying the 2 cases separately. Experiment 3 showed that increasing the degree of comparison support increased the rate of transfer in a face-to-face dynamic negotiation exercise.
Cognitive Psychology, 1980
The use of an analogy from a semantically distant domain to guide the problemsolving process was investigated. The representation of analogy in memory and processes involved in the use of analogies were discussed theoretically and explored in five experiments. In Experiment I oral protocols were used to examine the processes involved in solving a problem by analogy. In all experiments subjects who first read a story about a military problem and its solution tended to generate analogous solutions to a medical problem (Duncker's "radiation problem"), provided they were given a hint to use the story to help solve the problem. Transfer frequency was reduced when the problem presented in the military story was substantially disanalogous to the radiation problem, even though the solution illustrated in the story corresponded to an effective radiation solution (Experiment II). Subjects in Experiment III tended to generate analogous solutions to the radiation problem after providing their own solutions to the military problem. Subjects were able to retrieve the story from memory and use it to generate an analogous solution, even when the critical story had been memorized in the context of two distractor stories (Experiment IV). However, when no hint to consider the story was given, frequency of analogous solutions decreased markedly. This decrease in transfer occurred when the story analogy was presented in a recall task along with distractor stories (Experiment IV), when it was presented alone, and when it was presented in between two attempts to solve the problem (Experiment V). Component processes and strategic variations in analogical problem solving were discussed. Issues related to noticing analogies and accessing them in memory were also examined, as was the relationship of analogical reasoning to other cognitive tasks.
Analogical problem solving and prospective memory
2010
Analogical problem solving happens any time we solve a novel problem, or target problem, by analogy to something that we know from another domain of knowledge, usually called the source domain. In this paper, I suggest that this process is very similar to the processes that occur when we remember to perform an intended action, as is the case in
Promoting interdomain analogical transfer: When creating a problem helps to solve a problem
Memory & Cognition, 2016
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.
The role of analogy in transfer between similar problem states*1
Cognitive Psychology, 1974
The study investigated the effect of transfer between two problems having similar (homomorphic) problem states. The results of three experiments revealed that although transfer occurred between repetition of the same problems, transfer occurred between the Jealous Husbands problem and the Missionary—Cannibal problem only when (a) Ss were told the relationship between the two problems and (b) the Jealous Husbands problem was given first. The results are related to the formal structure of the problem space and to alternative explanations of the use of analogy in problem solving. These include memory for individual moves, memory for general strategies, and practice in applying operators.
Analogical encoding facilitates knowledge transfer in negotiation
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1999
Information learned in one situation often fails to transfer to a similarly structured situation. However, prior findings suggest that comparing two or more instances that embody the same principle can promote abstraction of a schema that can be transferred to new situations. In two lines of research, we examined the effects of analogical encoding on knowledge transfer in negotiation situations. In Experiment 1, undergraduates were more likely to propose optimal negotiation strategies and less likely to propose compromises (a suboptimal strategy) when they received analogy training. In Experiment 2, graduate management students who drew an analogy from two cases were nearly three times more likely to incorporate the strategy from the training cases into their negotiations than were students given the same cases separately. For both novices and experienced participants, the comparison process can be an efficient means of abstracting principles for later application. The premise of our educational system is that what is learned in the classroom transfers beyond the school walls. More generally, the presumption that knowledge is portable underlies much of our intuition about how we solve problems and make decisions. However, empirical evidence paints a rather gloomy picture of people's ability to retrieve relevant knowledge when solving a problem (see Reeves & Weisberg, 1994, for a recent review). This is particularly striking in studies of learning by example. We claim that analogical encoding promotes transfer. By analogical encoding, we mean the process of comparing two examples and deriving an abstraction on the basis of their commonalities. Although people often rely on previously learned examples to suggest possible solutions to current problems (see, e.g., Gentner, Holyoak, & Kokinov, in press; Pirolli & Anderson, 1985; Ross, 1984), the ability to take full advantage of prior experience is highly limited. For example, having solved one problem often does not help in solving an analogous problem when the two problems come from different contexts (see, e.g.
The role of content and abstract information in analogical transfer
Psychological Bulletin, 1994
Analogical transfer in problem solving is one example of analogical cognition, which also includes metaphors, similes, and case-based reasoning. The dominant theories in this area posit that abstract schemata mediate transfer (K. J. Holyoak, 1984a, 1985) or that problem solving by means of analogy is accomplished through application of the formal or deep structural characteristics of one problem to another (D. Centner, 1983, 1989). More recently, exemplar-based accounts (D. L. Medin & B. H. Ross, 1989; B. H. Ross, 1987) have emphasized problem content and exemplar-specific details in the various stages of transfer. The present article reviews research on analogical transfer and analyzes the theoretical models in light of this evidence. An adequate theory of analogical transfer must account not only for the use of schematic knowledge but also for the importance of surface information in all stages of transfer (Reeves & Weisberg, 1993a). As such, it will be a hybrid of the various models presented, with exemplar-based models such as that of B. H. Ross as a base.
2013
Analogy is a kind of similarity in which the same system of relations holds across different objects. Analogies thus capture parallels across different situations. When such a common structure is found, then what is known about one situation can be used to infer new information about the other. This chapter describes the processes involved in analogical reasoning, reviews foundational research and recent developments in the field, and proposes new avenues of investigation. analogy, mapping, inference, reasoning, relational structure, structural alignment, relational similarity, structure mapping, metaphor Analogical ability—the ability to perceive like relational structure across different contexts—is a core mechanism of human cognition. The ability to perceive and use purely relational similarity is a major contributor—arguably the major contributor—to our species ’ remarkable mental powers (Gentner,