ABSTRACT
During the past decade, significant advances were made in the understanding of the development of the production and comprehension of nonliteral language (Vosniadou, 1987; Winner, 1988). Progress was also made in the understanding of the development of analogical reasoning in terms of the processes involved and in terms of the role it plays in human cognition (Brown, 1989; Goswami, 1992; Vosniadou, 1989). It is on this last area that I focus in this article, particularly on the role that analogical reasoning plays in the developing thought of the child but also on the role it plays in the acquisition of knowledge and expertise.
