The Structural Anchoring of Spontaneous Analogies
Thursday, November 12, 2020
16:00 UTC
Lucas Raynal / Dr Katarina Gvozdic
Cergy-Pontoise University / University of Geneva
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by Analogical Minds60 minutes
Abstract
It is generally acknowledged that analogy is a core mechanism of human cognition, but paradoxically, analogies based on structural similarities would rarely be implemented spontaneously (e.g. without an explicit invitation to compare two representations). The scarcity of deep spontaneous analogies is at odds with the demonstration that familiar concepts from our daily-life are spontaneously used to encode the structure of our experiences. Based on this idea, we will present experimental works highlighting the predominant role of structural similarities in analogical retrieval. The educational stakes lurking behind the tendency to encode the problem’s structures through familiar concepts will also be addressed.
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