THE EFFECTS OF DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION AND DEGREE OF ANALOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANALOGICAL REASONING

Eighty second-grade and eighty fourth-grade children participated in the present study. Each child heard one of five different stories (High Correspondence/High Hierarchy, High Correspondence/Low Hierarchy, Low Correspondence/High Hierarchy, Low Correspondence/Low Hierarchy, or Control) and then was asked to solve a problem. The text of the two High Correspondence stories was more analogous to the problem to be solved (i.e., had a greater number of relationships in common with the problem) than was that of the two Low Correspondence stories. The Control story was not at all analogous to the problem. The text of the two High Hierarchy stories contained both a detailed presentation of pertinent information, as well as a summarized version of these details. The Low Correspondence stories contained only the detailed presentation of pertinent information.;This first finding provides support for previous studies that have investigated degree of analogical correspondence and found that stories with a high degree of analogical corespondence are more likely to positively influence subsequent problem solving than stories with a low degree of analogical correspondence (e.g., Holyoak, Junn and Billman, 1984; Gick & Holyoak, 1980, 1983).;The second finding is suggestive of possible developmental differences in the types of analogical responses preferred by children of different ages. The present results suggest that, even though younger children may be as capable of analogical responses as older children, younger children may be more likely to require physical similarity between the base analog and the target problem in order to reason analogically.;It was found that children who heard High Correspondence stories were more likely to choose solutions to the problem that were analogous to the story than were children who heard Low Correspondence stories. It was found, further, that younger (second-grade) children were more likely to choose analogous problem solutions that possessed a greater physical similarity to the story, whereas older (fourth-grade) children were more likely to choose analogous problem solutions that possessed a lesser physical similarity to the story.