Ricardo A. Minervino

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.

La Eficacia del Paradigma de Producción para Promover la Recuperación de Análogos Interdominio

Experimental studies using a reception paradigm show that interdomain analog retrieval is intrinsically dif fi cult, and far less likely to occur than intradomain analogue retrieval. Using a production paradigm, Blanchette and Dunbar (2000) obtained contradictory results. In Experiment 1 we replicated Blanchette and Dunbar’s study using materials that give more validity to their results. Experiment 2 was designed to test the hypothesis that a structural encoding of the base and target analogs promotes the high rate of interdomain retrieval observed under a production paradigm. Our results showed that interdomain retrieval was scarce and less frequent than intradomain retrieval, suggesting that the hypothesis advanced by Blanchette and Dunbar doesn’t account for the data obtained using a production paradigm.

Training to Generate Creative Metaphors by Reviving Dormant Analogies

Most creativity techniques encourage breaking away from stored knowledge and known solutions. Counter to this approach, this study assessed the effectiveness of an intervention based on introducing minimal variations to well-established knowledge structures. Two groups were tasked with generating creative metaphorical titles for short essays. While the experimental group had been trained in extending and reinstantiating conceptual metaphors, the control group had been trained on creativity techniques unrelated to the task. Training increased the number of novel metaphorical titles derived from conceptual metaphors, and these titles were more creative than novel metaphorical titles not derived from conceptual metaphors. Finally, the titles generated via the deliberate use of the trained heuristics were as creative as those of the same type that were spontaneously produced by the control group. The implications for interventions to promote creativity are discussed.

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.

The Understanding of Visual Metaphors by the Congenitally Blind

Results from a narrow set of empirical studies suggest that blind individuals’ comprehension of metaphorical expressions does not differ from that of sighted participants. However, prominent accounts of metaphor comprehension yield different predictions about the blind’s ability to comprehend visual metaphors. While conceptual metaphor theory leads to predicting that blind individuals should lag behind their sighted peers in making sense of this particular kind of utterances, from traditional accounts of analogical reasoning it follows that blind individuals’ ability to comprehend the literal meaning of visual concepts might be sufficient to support their metaphorical application. In Experiment 1, 20 sighted and 20 congenitally blind participants were asked to select the most appropriate meaning for visual, grasping and filler metaphorical expressions. Results failed to reveal group differences for any type of metaphorical expressions. In order to implement a more stringent test of blind individuals’ ability to understand visual metaphors, in Experiment 2 blind and sighted participants were presented with very novel figurative expressions, as indicated by low or no occurrence in the “Google” corpus. In line with the results of Experiment 1, blind participants’ comprehension of visual metaphors was both high in absolute terms and comparable to that of sighted participants. We advance some speculations about the mechanisms by which blind individuals comprehend visual metaphors and we discuss the implications of these results for current theories of metaphor.

Attending to individual recipients’ knowledge when generating persuasive analogies

ABSTRACT When addressing the general population, experts and novices ground analogical arguments on culturally shared situations. No studies, however, have assessed the extent to which the analogies used in person-to-person exchanges relate to the background knowledge of their intended recipient. In Experiment 1, two groups of psychology students received a description of a patient seeking psychological assistance. They were tasked with generating analogies to dissuade her from embarking on a short therapy, on the grounds that such therapies leave the underlying causes unchanged. While one of the groups was asked to analogise to the knowledge background of the patient, the other group was not given such indication. Results showed that even though participants can adjust their analogies to their addressees upon explicit request, they rarely do it spontaneously. Experiment 2 yielded similar results despite a more vivid presentation of the critical information about the recipient. A final study showed that a sample of the same population regards tailored analogies as being more persuasive than non-tailored analogies, thus confirming that participants of the first two experiments selected analogies that were less appropriate than other types of analogies that they are capable of generating.

The Simulation of Situation Models Aids Analogical Transfer Between Algebra Problems

Several studies on analogical transfer to algebra word problems have demonstrated that adapting solutions learned from worked examples to nonisomorphic problems of the same type is challenging and that most instructional aids do not alleviate this difficulty. At the same time, various authors have suggested that transfer difficulties sometimes originate in students’ lack of disposition to relate algebraic formulas to the real-world situations to which they refer. We designed a noninteractive intervention encouraging students to elaborate situation models for base and target problems, and to ground algebraic formalisms in these representations. One experimental group simulated situation models by physical object manipulation, whereas another experimental group performed those simulations mentally. Both conditions outperformed a control group that did not run simulations. This intervention was more effective when the transformations posed by target problems were intrinsically more difficult to assimilate into the learned equation. Implications for the design of instructional interventions are discussed.

Retrieval of analogs from long-term memory: Explaining the divergence between experimental and naturalistic studies

Abstract In contrast to the experimental tradition in the study of analogical retrieval, naturalistic studies in which participants have to retrieve their own source analogs suggest that retrieval does not require superficial similarities. However, two important limitations of naturalistic studies concern the unknown availabilities of close vs. distant matches in long-term memory and the use of retrieval measures vulnerable to report bias. In the present study we complemented the procedure followed in naturalistic studies with two additional controls: (1) a survey of naturally encoded sources available in Long-Term Memory prior to the experimental session, and (2) a measure of analogical retrieval less vulnerable to report bias. A comparison between the number of natural analogs that were available in memory and those that were retrieved during an analogy generation task demonstrated that retrieval of naturally encoded source analogs—just as retrieval of experimentally learned situations—is strongly constrained by superficial similarity.