An investigation of analogical retrieval and mapping in complex reasoning situations /

The goal of the research reported in this thesis is to explore analogical reasoning in complex situations. In three manuscripts, novel aspects of analogy use are investigated. In Manuscript 1, analogies used in a political campaign were analyzed with the framework developed in the analogical reasoning literature. Results show a number of novel features of analogy use. The majority of source analogs used were not superficially similar to the target problem, most of the mappings between source and target were implicit, and emotion appeared to be an important feature in the selection of source analogs. In Manuscript 2, three experiments were conducted that explored some of the effects uncovered in the first study. In these experiments, participants were asked either to generate their own source analogs in relation to a target problem or to retrieve a source from a predetermined set. Results show that when generating their own sources, people are not constrained by superficial similarity. However, when asked to retrieve from a predetermined set of sources, participants retrieve based on surface similarity. These results suggest that previous studies may have underestimated people's ability to use structural features in analogical retrieval. The research reported in Manuscript 3 explores the impact of analogical inferences on the representations of target problems. Descriptions of target problems were presented followed by potential source analogs. Results show that people engage in analogical mapping and draw inferences. These inferences, that were not presented, are incorporated in people's representation of the target and cannot be differentiated from information that was actually presented. People falsely recognize analogical inferences as having been presented when in fact they had not. Results from all these studies are discussed in terms of the novel insights they contribute to the analogy literature and in terms of their implications for theoretical models o