Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Prior research has found that comparison fosters abstraction and transfer of concepts (e.g., categories, solution methods).These learning benefits are often explained by virtue of comparison's ability to highlight common relational structure between cases.Here we explore the role of comparison in identifying critical differences.Participants compared contrastive cases, listed differences between them, and completed a classification task.We found that carrying out a structural alignment prior to listing differences influenced the kinds of differences people noticed.Further, the kinds of differences people noticed predicted their subsequent classification performance.
Authors: Linsey A. Smith, Dedre Gentner
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: Office of Naval Research
Award: G8876996369
OpenAlex ID: W2408321599