The Effects Of Similarity Of Theme And Instantiation On Analogical Problem-solving In Adult's

Analogical reasoning is one of the core abilities in human cognitive development which focuses on learning, problem solving, creativity and artificial intelligence now. Similarity is an important character of the analogical reasoning. The core of analogical reasoning is not the superficial similarity but the structural similarity. We attempt to compartmentalize two styles which are similarity of theme and instantiation in structural similarity. This study is designed to determine the effects of similarity of theme and instantiation on analogical problem-solving in adult's.We design two experiments. In Experiment One, We set two variables: similarity of theme and similarity of instantiation. We ask the subjects to solve particular problems and take down their scores through testing the subjects collectively. In Experiment Two, we set one variable: similarity of theme. We ask the subjects to solve the target problems collectively and take down their scores. On the condition of this study, the results of these experiments are as follows:(1) The similarity of theme is a crucial factor which influences adult's problem-solving analogical reasoning. It is an important style of structural similarity which accelerates the subjects judged stories containing similar theme as more analogous than stories which dissimilar themes. As same, greater transfer was seen for stories with similar themes than for stories with dissimilar themes.(2) The similarity of instantiation is also a crucial factor which influences adult's problem-solving analogical reasoning. It is an important style of structuralsimilarity which accelerates the subjects judged stories containing similar theme as more analogous than stories which dissimilar themes.(3) By comparing the similarity of theme and similarity of instantiation on controversial condition, we find that adults mainly rely on the similarity of instantiation instead of similarity of theme, to judge analogical goodness. In this aspect, the similarity of theme just play an urging role, but not crucial.