Analogy as co-categorization

NICOLAS OBERHOLZER; MAXIMO TRENCH; FEDERICO SELZER; RICARDO MINERVINO

Dijon

Congreso; THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ANALOGY; 2013

Université de Bourgogne

We carried out two experiments to demonstrate that judgments of analogical relatedness sometimes depend on whether the compared events are exemplars of the same schema relational category (SRC). In Experiment 1 participants received pairs of events of the form RELATION (agent, object) to be rated for analogical relatedness. While in the pro-analogy condition a shared object was intended to help viewing both situations as analogous (e.g., ?Peter tried the car? and ?Peter disassembled the car?), in the no-analogy condition the shared object was not intended to help viewing them as analogous (e.g., ?Peter tried the chicken? and ?Peter disassembled the chicken?). Results showed that the facts were considered more analogous in the pro-analogy condition than in the no-analogy condition. Experiment 2 was carried out to assess whether two facts can be considered analogous when framed within a given SRC (e.g., diagnosing a problem), but not under a different category (e.g., testing prior to buying). To this end we presented participants with the same two facts in the pro-analogy and no-analogy conditions. However, while in the former condition the SRC suggested by the context was capable of encompassing both situations, in the latter condition it was not. Participants gave higher scores of analogical relatedness in the pro-analogy condition than in the no-analogy condition. We concluded that when computing the analogical relatedness between two facts, the key component sometimes consists in finding or constructing an encompassing SRC for the events being compared, which depends on the analysis of the interaction between propositional elements ?and not on similarity between matched elements?and also on the available information about which SCR should be employed in a particular comparison. The implications of these results for the development of theoretical models of analogical thinking are discussed.