The effects of analogies on the comprehension of tangible and intangible concepts

Analogies are potentially powerful instructional tools that help bridge the gap between what learners already know and what they want to know. While they are commonly used, little has been written about their optimal use in instruction. Newby and Stepich (1987) have attempted to fill this gap by suggesting prescriptions specifying when to use analogies and how to construct and present them. Newby and Stepich prescribe the use of analogies for teaching abstract concepts. The present experiment provides a test of that prescription. Brief instructional lessons were written for each of twelve physiology concepts. The concepts were selected from a larger group of concepts on the basis of expert ratings of their tangibility, difficulty, complexity, and ambiguity. Ninety-four college students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions. In the analogy condition the instructional lessons included an analogy for each concept. In the no-analogy condition the concepts were presented without analogies. A mixed-factorial analysis of variance (method of instruction x type of concept with repeated measures) was performed on the number of items answered correctly on a 24-item multiple choice posttest. The results show significant differences for the method of instruction and the type of concept. A significant interaction between the method of instruction and type of concept was also shown. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are presented. In addition, the confidence, enjoyment, and study time of the subjects in the two experimental conditions were analyzed using two-tailed t-tests. The results show no difference between the two conditions in confidence. Subjects in the analogy condition rated their lesson as more enjoyable. Subjects in the analogy condition also used more time to study the concepts than did subjects in the no-analogy condition. These results are also discussed in terms of implications for instructional practice and future research