Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Theories of the development of analogical reasoning emphasize either the centrality of relational knowledge accretion or changes in information processing.Recent cross-cultural data collected from children in the United States and China (Richland, Chan, Morrison, & Au, 2010) provides a unique way to test these theories.Here we use simulations in LISA/DORA (Doumas, Hummel, & Sandhofer, 2008;Hummel & Holyoak, 1997, 2003), a neurally-plausible computer model of relational learning and analogical reasoning, to argue that the development of analogical reasoning in children may best be conceptualized as an equilibrium between knowledge accretion and progressive improvement in information processing capability.Thus, improvements in inhibitory control in working memory as children mature enable them to process more relationally complex analogies.At the same time, however, children produce more complex and more accurate analogies in domains in which they have learned richer and more refined representations of relational concepts.Relational thinking-i.e., thinking based on the roles that objects play rather than the literal features of those things-is a cornerstone of human cognition.It underlies, among many other things, our ability to make analogies, or to appreciate correspondences between domains (e.g., Holyoak & Thagard, 1995).As with many cognitive processes, our ability to make analogies changes with development.While there is considerable agreement that analogy is a very important process in cognitive development (e.g., Gentner, 2003), there is considerable disagreement as to how the ability to reason analogically develops.
Authors: Leonidas A. A. Doumas, Robert Morrison, Lindsey E. Richland
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2099825325