Imagistic Processes in Analogical Reasoning: Conserving Transformations and Dual Simulations
John J. Clement · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2004
The classical theory of analogical reasoning focuses on mappings between discrete symbols as the mechanism of analogy evaluation and transfer. This paper introduces several other analogy evaluation strategies discovered in expert reasoning protocols: bridging analogies, conserving transformations, dual simulations used to detect perceptual-motor similarity, and overlay simulations. These findings provide evidence for the hypothesis that certain analogical reasoning processes can be imagery based. Earlier work on higher order reasoning has indicated that expert subjects use various methods to generate analogies spontaneously when solving difficult problems (Clement, 1988), and that evaluating the validity of such analogies is essential to using them (Clement, 1989). That is, even if one has generated a confidently understood analogous case, one