Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:18:34.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Analogy as relational priming: A developmental and computational perspective on the origins of a complex cognitive skill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2008

Robert Leech ,
Denis Mareschal  and
Richard P. Cooper
Robert Leech
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, United Kingdomr.leech@bbk.ac.ukhttp://www.alphalab.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/RobertLeech.html
Denis Mareschal
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, United Kingdomd.mareschal@bbk.ac.ukhttp://www.bbk.ac.uk/psyc/staff/academic/dmareschal
Richard P. Cooper
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, United Kingdomr.cooper@bbk.ac.ukhttp://www.bbk.ac.uk/psyc/staff/academic/rcooper
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The development of analogical reasoning has traditionally been understood in terms of theories of adult competence. This approach emphasizes structured representations and structure mapping. In contrast, we argue that by taking a developmental perspective, analogical reasoning can be viewed as the product of a substantially different cognitive ability – relational priming. To illustrate this, we present a computational (here connectionist) account where analogy arises gradually as a by-product of pattern completion in a recurrent network. Initial exposure to a situation primes a relation that can then be applied to a novel situation to make an analogy. Relations are represented as transformations between states. The network exhibits behaviors consistent with a broad range of key phenomena from the developmental literature, lending support to the appropriateness of this approach (using low-level cognitive mechanisms) for investigating a domain that has normally been the preserve of high-level models. Furthermore, we present an additional simulation that integrates the relational priming mechanism with deliberative controlled use of inhibition to demonstrate how the framework can be extended to complex analogical reasoning, such as the data from explicit mapping studies in the literature on adults. This account highlights how taking a developmental perspective constrains the theory construction and cognitive modeling processes in a way that differs substantially from that based purely on adult studies, and illustrates how a putative complex cognitive skill can emerge out of a simple mechanism.

Keywords

Analogical reasoningcognitive developmentconnectionismrelational primingtransformation similarity
Type
Main Articles
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , August 2008 , pp. 357 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altmann, G. T. M. (2002) Learning and development in neural networks: The importance of prior experience. Cognition 85:43–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andrews, G. & Halford, G. S. (2002) A cognitive complexity metric applied to cognitive development. Cognitive Psychology 45:153–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andrews, G., Halford, G. S., Bunch, K. M., Bowden, D. & Jones, T. (2003) Theory of mind and relational complexity. Child Development 74(5):1476–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnden, J. A. (1994) On the connectionist implementation of analogy and working memory matching. In: Advances in connectionist and neural computation theory, vol. 3: Analogy, metaphor and reminding, ed. Barnden, J. A. & Holyoak, K. J., pp. 327–74. Ablex.Google Scholar
Barnden, J. A. & Holyoak, K. J. (1994) Advances in connectionist and neural computation theory. Analogy, reminding, and metaphor. Ablex.Google Scholar
Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. (1989) Competition and connectionism. In: The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing, ed. MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, S., Moscovitch, M., Behrmann, M. & Joordens, S. (1997) Long-term semantic priming: A computational account and empirical evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 23:1059–82.Google ScholarPubMed
Blanchette, I. & Dunbar, K. (2000) How analogies are generated: The roles of structural and superficial similarity. Memory and Cognition 28:108–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blanchette, I. & Dunbar, K. (2001) Analogy use in naturalistic settings: The influence of audience, emotion, and goals. Memory and Cognition 29:730–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowdle, B. & Gentner, D. (1997) Informativity and asymmetry in comparisons. Cognitive Psychology 34(3):244–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, A. L. (1989) Analogical learning and transfer: What develops? In: Similarity and analogical reasoning, ed. Vosniadou, S. & Ortony, A., pp. 199–241. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, A. L. & Kane, M. J. (1988) Preschool children can learn to transfer: Learning to learn and learning from example. Cognitive Psychology 20:493–523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chapman, L. J., Chapman, J. P., Curran, T. E. & Miller, M. B. (1994) Do children and the elderly show heightened semantic priming? Developmental Review 14:159–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Z., Sanchez, R. P. & Campbell, T. (1997) From beyond to within their grasp: The rudiments of analogical problem solving in 10- and 13-month-olds. Developmental Psychology 33:790–801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clement, C. A. & Gentner, D. (1991) Systematicity as a selection constraint in analogical mapping. Cognitive Science 15:89–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisafi, M. A. & Brown, A. L. (1986) Analogical transfer in very young children: Combining two separately learned solutions to reach a goal. Child Development 57:953–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davelaar, E. J., Goshen-Gottstein, Y., Ashkenazi, A., Haarmann, H. J. & Usher, M. (2005) The demise of short-term memory revisited: Empirical and computational investigations of recency effects. Psychological Review 112:3–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, D. (1967) The logical form of action sentences. In: The logic of decision and action, ed. Rescher, N., pp. 81–95. University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Dempster, F. N. & Brainerd, C. J. (1995) Interference and inhibition in cognition. Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Efron, B. & Tibshirani, R. J. (1998) Introduction to the Bootstrap. Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Eliasmith, C. & Thagard, P. (2001) Integrating structure and meaning: A distributed model of analogical mapping. Cognitive Science 25:245–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elman, J., Bates, E., Johnson, M. H., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Parisi, D & Plunkett, K. (1996) Rethinking innateness: A connectionist perspective on development. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Estes, Z. (2003) Attributive and relational processes in nominal combination. Journal of Memory and Language 48:304–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estes, Z. & Jones, L. L. (2006) Priming via relational similarity: A copper horse is faster when seen through a glass eye. Journal of Memory and Language 55(1):89–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falkenhainer, B., Forbus, K. D. & Gentner, D. (1989) The structure-mapping engine: Algorithm and examples. Artificial Intelligence 41(1):1–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbus, K. D., Gentner, D. & Law, K. (1994) MAC/FAC: A model of similarity-based retrieval. Cognitive Science 19:141–205.Google Scholar
French, R. M. (1995) The subtlety of sameness. Bradford Books/MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, R. M. (2002) The computational modeling of analogy-making. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6:200–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gagné, C. L. (2001) Relation and lexical priming during the interpretation of noun–noun combinations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 27:236–54.Google ScholarPubMed
Gagné, C. L. (2002) Lexical and relational influences on the processing of novel compounds. Brain and Language 81:723–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gagné, C. L. & Shoben, E. J. (1997) The influence of thematic relations on the comprehension of modifier–noun combinations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 23:71–87.Google Scholar
Gagné, C. L., Spalding, T. L. & Ji, H. (2005) Re-examining evidence for the use of independent relational representations during conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 53:445–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D. (1983) Structure-mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy. Cognitive Science 7:155–70.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. (1988) Metaphor as structure mapping: The relational shift. Child Development 59:47–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D. (1989) The mechanisms of analogical learning. In: Similarity and analogical reasoning, ed. Vosniadou, S. & Ortony, A., pp. 199–241. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D., Rattermann, M. J., Markman, A. B. & Kotovsky, L. (1995) Two forces in the development of relational similarity. In: Developing cognitive competence: New approaches to process modeling, ed. Simon, T. J. & Halford, G. S., pp. 263–313. LEA.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. & Toupin, C. (1986) Systematicity and surface similarity in the development of analogy. Cognitive Science 10:277–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerrig, R. J. & Murphy, G. L. (1992) Contextual influences on the comprehension of complex concepts. Language and Cognitive Processes 7:205–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gick, M. L. & Holyoak, K. J. (1983) Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology 15:1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. (1991) Analogical reasoning: What develops? A review of research and theory. Child Development 62:1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. (1992) Analogical reasoning in children. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Goswami, U. (1995) Transitive relational mappings in three- and four-year-olds: The analogy of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Child Development 66(3):877–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. (1996) Analogical reasoning and cognitive development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior 26:91–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goswami, U. (1998) Is relational complexity a useful metric for cognitive development? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21:838–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. (2001) Analogical reasoning in children. In: The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science, ed. Holyoak, K., Gentner, D., & Kokinov, B., pp. 437–70. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. & Brown, A. L. (1989) Melting chocolate and melting snowmen: Analogical reasoning and causal relations. Cognition 35:69–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U. & Brown, A. L. (1990) Higher-order structure and relational reasoning: Contrasting analogical and thematic relations. Cognition 36:207–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, A., Fugelsang, J. & Dunbar, K. N. (2007) Automatic activation of categorical and abstract analogical relations in analogical reasoning. Memory and Cognition 34:1414–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, U., Chater, N. & Richardson, L. B. C. (2003) Similarity as transformation. Cognition 87:1–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halford, G., Wilson, W., Guo, J., Gayler, R., Wiles, J. & Stewart, J. (1994) Connectionist implications for processing capacity limitations in analogies. In: Advances in connectionist and neural computation theory, vol. 2: Analogical Connections, ed. Holyoak, K. & Barnden, J., pp. 363–415. Ablex.Google Scholar
Halford, G. S. (1993) Children's understanding: The development of mental models. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Halford, G. S., Wilson, W. H. & Phillips, W. (1998) Processing capacity defined by relational complexity: Implications for comparative, developmental, and cognitive psychology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21:803–31; discussion pp. 831–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofstadter, D. R. (1984) The Copycat project: An experiment in nondeterminism and creative analogies. MIT AI Memo, No. 755.Google Scholar
Holyoak, K., Gentner, D. & Kokinov, B. (2001) The place of analogy in cognition. In: The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science, ed. Holyoak, K., Gentner, D. & Kokinov, B., pp. 1–19. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Holyoak, K. J. & Barnden, J. A. (1994) Advances in connectionist and neural computation theory, Analogical connections. Ablex.Google Scholar
Holyoak, K. J. & Hummel, J. E. (2001) Toward an understanding of analogy within a biological symbol system. In: The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science, ed. Gentner, D., Holyoak, K. J., & Kokinov, B. N., pp. 161–95. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holyoak, K. J., Junn, E. N. & Billman, D. O. (1984) Development of analogical problem-solving skill. Child Development 55:2042–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holyoak, K. J. & Thagard, P. (1989) Analogical mapping by constraint satisfaction. Cognitive Science 13:295–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosenfeld, B., van der Maas, H. L. J. & van den Boom, D. C. (1997) Indicators of discontinuous change in the development of analogical reasoning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 64:367–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Houdé, O. (2000) Inhibition and cognitive development: Object, number, categorization, and reasoning. Cognitive Development 15:63–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hummel, J. E. & Holyoak, K. J. (1997) Distributed representations of structure: A theory of analogical access and mapping. Psychological Review 104(3): 427–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inagaki, K. & Hatano, G. (1987) Young children's spontaneous personifications as analogy. Child Development 58:1013–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Japkowicz, N. (2001) Supervised and unsupervised binary learning by feedforward neural networks. Machine Learning 42:97–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1998) Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2:389–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keane, M., Ledgeway, T. & Duff, S. (1994) Constraints on analogical mapping: A comparison of three models. Cognitive Science.18:387–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keane, M. T. & Brayshaw, M. (1988) The incremental analogy machine: A computational model of analogy. In: Third European working session on learning, ed. Sleeman, D., pp. 53–62. Morgan Kaufmann.Google Scholar
Kokinov, B. (1990) Associative memory-based reasoning: Some experimental results. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 741–49. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kokinov, B. & French, R. M. (2003) Computational models of analogy-making. In: Encyclopedia of cognitive science, vol. 1, ed. Nadel, L., pp. 113–18. Nature Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Kokinov, B. & Petrov, A. (2001) Integration of memory and reasoning in analogy-making: The AMBR model. In: The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science, ed. Gentner, D., Holyoak, K. & Kokinov, B., pp. 59–124. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotovsky, L. & Gentner, D. (1996) Comparison and categorization in the development of relational similarity. Child Development 67:2797–822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutas, M. & Federmeier, K. D. (2000) Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension. Trends in Cognitive Science 12: 63–70.Google Scholar
Larkey, L. B. & Love, B. C. (2003) CAB: Connectionist analogy builder. Cognitive Science 27:781–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larkey, L. B. & Love, B. C. (2007) Relations as transformations: Implications for analogical reasoning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 60:897–908.Google Scholar
Leech, R., Mareschal, D. & Cooper, R. (2007) Relations as transformations: Implications for analogical reasoning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 60:897–890.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loewenstein, J. & Gentner, D. (2005) Relational language and the development of relational mapping. Cognitive Psychology 50:315–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M., Thomas, M. & Westermann, G. (2007) Neuroconstructivism, vol. I: How the brain constructs cognition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markman, A. B. & Gentner, D. (1997) The effects of alignability on memory storage. Psychological Science 8(5):363–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClelland, J. L. & Thompson, R. M. (2007) Using domain-general principles to explain children's causal reasoning abilities. Developmental Science 10:333–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKoon, G. & Ratcliff, R. (1995) Conceptual combinations and relational contexts in free association and in priming in lexical decision and naming. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2:527–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, M. (1993) Analogy-making as perception: A computer model. Bradford Books/MIT Press.Google Scholar
Novick, L. R. (1988) Analogical transfer, problem similarity, and expertise. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14:510–20.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Reilly, R. C. (1996) Biologically plausible error-driven learning using local activation differences. Neural Computation 8:895–938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Reilly, R. C. (2006) Biologically based computational Models of high-level cognition. Science 314:91–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Reilly, R. C. & Munakata, Y. (2000) Computational explorations in cognitive neuroscience: Understanding the mind by simulating the brain. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauen, S. & Wilkening, F. (1997) Children's analogical reasoning about natural phenomena. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 67:90–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piaget, J. (1970) Genetic epistemology, trans. Duckworth, E.. Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J., Montangero, J. & Billeter, J. (1977) La formation des correlats. In: Recherces sur l'abstraction reflechissante I, ed. Piaget, J., pp. 115–29. Presses Unversitaires de France.Google Scholar
Ramsay, J. O. & Silverman, B. W. (2002) Applied functional data analysis: Methods and case studies. Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattermann, M. J. & Gentner, D. (1998a) More evidence for a relational shift in the development of analogy: Children's performance on a causal-mapping task. Cognitive Development 13:453–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattermann, M. J. & Gentner, D. (1998b) The effect of language on similarity: The use of relational labels improves young children's performance in a mapping task. In: Advances in analogy research: Integration of theory and data from the cognitive, computational, and neural sciences, ed. Holyoak, K., Gentner, D. & Kokinov, B., pp. 274–82. New Bulgarian University.Google Scholar
Rattermann, M. J., Gentner, D. & DeLoache, J. (1990) The effects of familiar labels on young children's performance in an analogical mapping task. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 22–29. LEA.Google Scholar
Richland, L. E., Morrison, R. G. & Holyoak, K. J. (2006) Children's development of analogical reasoning: Insights from scene analogy problems. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 94:249–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ripoll, T., Brude, T. & Coulon, D. (2003) Does analogical transfer involve a term-to-term alignment? Memory and Cognition 31:221–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogers, T. T. & McClelland, J. L. (2004) Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, T. T. & McClelland, J. L. (2005) A parallel distributed processing approach to semantic cognition: Applications to conceptual development. To appear in: Building object categories in developmental time: Proceedings of the Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, vol. 32, ed. Rakison, D. and Gershkoff-Stowe, L., pp. 335–87. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rougier, N. P., Noelle, D., Braver, T. S., Cohen, J. D. & O'Reilly, R. C. (2005) Prefrontal cortex and the flexibility of cognitive control: Rules without symbols. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102:7338–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schunn, C. D. & Dunbar, K. (1996) Priming, analogy, and awareness in complex reasoning. Memory and Cognition 24:271–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shastri, L. & Ajjanagadde, V. (1993) From simple associations to systematic reasoning: A connectionist representation of rules, variables, and dynamic bindings using temporal synchrony. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16:417–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shultz, T. R. (2003) Computational developmental psychology. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shultz, T. R. & Rivest, F. (2001) Knowledge-based cascade-correlation: Using knowledge to speed learning. Connection Science 13:43–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shultz, T. R., Rivest, F., Egri, L. & Thivierge, J. P. (2006) Knowledge-based learning with KBCC. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Development and Learning.Google Scholar
Spellman, B. A. & Holyoak, K. J. (1992) If Saddam is Hitler then who is George Bush? Analogical mapping between systems of social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 62: 913–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spellman, B. A., Holyoak, K. J. & Morrison, R. G. (2001) Analogical priming via semantic relations. Memory and Cognition 29:383–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sternberg, R. J. (1977a) Component processes in analogical reasoning. Psychological Review 84:353–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. & Nigro, G. (1980) Developmental patterns in the solution of verbal analogies. Child Development 51:27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. & Rifkin, B. (1979) The development of analogical reasoning processes. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 27:195–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thelen, E. & Smith, L. B. (1994) A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. S. C. & Mareschal, D. (1997) Connectionism and psychological notions of similarity. In: Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, ed. Shafto, M. G. & Langley, P., pp. 757–62. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. S. C. & Mareschal, D. (2001) Metaphor as categorisation: A connectionist implementation. Metaphor and Symbol 16:5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. S. C., Mareschal, D. & Hinds, A. (2001) A connectionist account of the emergence of the literal-metaphorical-anomalous distinction in young children. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, ed. Moore, J. D. & Stenning, K., pp. 1042–47. LEA.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. & Schacter, D. L. (1990) Priming and human memory systems. Science 247:301–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tunteler, E. & Resing, W. C. (2002) Spontaneous analogical transfer in 4-year-olds: A microgenetic study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 83:149–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van der Maas, H. & Molenaar, P. (1992) A catastrophe-theoretical approach to cognitive development. Psychological Review 99:395–417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vosniadou, S. (1989) Analogical reasoning as a mechanism in knowledge acquisition: A developmental perspective. In: Similarity and analogical reasoning, ed. Vosniadou, S. & Ortony, A., pp. 199–241. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wisniewski, E. J. & Love, B. C. (1998) Relations versus properties in conceptual combination. Journal of Memory and Language 38:177–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar