ABSTRACT
The transfer of existing knowledge to new but closely related problems and situations has been a topic of continuing interest to psychologists throughout the 20th century. Historically, this kind of transfer, here called analogical reasoning, has been studied in diverse theoretical contexts under a variety of labels. For example, generalization due to identical (or common) elements (e.g., Cantor, 1965; Hull, 1939; Spence, 1937, 1942; Thorndike, 1923; Thorndike & Woodworth, 1901), resonance effects of signals (e.g., Dunker, 1945; Luchins, 1942; Sobel, 1939), and the mapping of structural relations from the known to the new (e.g., Inhelder & Piaget, 1958; Judd, 1908; Spearman, 1923). More recently, researchers in three relatively insular disciplines have focused on analogical reasoning. First, cognitive scientists have proposed that analogy plays a principal role in the induction mechanisms of intelligent systems, both biological and electronic. Thus models and simulations have appeared with increasing frequency in that literature (e.g., Burstein, 1986; Carbonell, 1986; Falkenhainer, Forbus, & Gentner, 1986; Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, & Thagard, 1986; Sweller, 1988; Winston, 1980, 1984). Second, the role of analogy in mathematical problem solving has attracted considerable attention (e.g., Cooper & Sweller, 1987; Kintsch & Greeno, 1985; Novick, 1988; Reed, 1987; Read, Dempster, & Ettinger, 1985; Ross, 1987; Silver, 1981). Finally, some psychologists have focused their research efforts on attempts to understand the development of analogical reasoning processes (e.g., Alexander,Willson, White, & Fuqua, 1987; Brown, Kane, & Echols, 1986; Gentner, 1977; Gentner & Toupin, 1986; Gholson, Eymard, Morgan, & Kamhi, 1987; Holyoak, 1984; Holyoak, Junn, & Billman, 1984; Sternberg, 1985; Sternberg & Rifkin, 1979). This convergence of research and theory reflects an emerging theoretical consensus in which analogical reasoning is taken as an essential feature of learning and problem solving (Brown & Campione, 1984; Gentner, 1989; Gholson, Eymard, Long, Morgan, & Leeming, 1988), playing an important role in, among other things, classroom learning (Brown, 1989; Brown et al., 1986; Sternberg, 1985) and the various enterprises of science (Gentner, 1983; Hesse, 1966; Nersessian, 1984).
