Analogy and Cognitive Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

A fundamental question in cognitive development is how children spontaneously generalize across limited past experiences to acquire new abstractions in novel situations. Analogy is one mechanism to bootstrap learning far beyond what the input provides.

Four papers in our symposium demonstrated the critical role of analogy in diverse areas of cognitive development (i.e., social cognition, mathematical development, and creative problem solving), and discussed neurological and environmental factors impacting the development of analogical thinking.

Paper one provides evidence that structural alignment in experience (i.e., sequential presentations of two vignettes of a true belief followed by a vignette of a false belief) contributes to the development of theory of mind among four-year-olds. Paper two indicates that spatially aligned integer and fraction number lines (e.g., 3 on a 0-8 number-line and 3/8 on a 0-1 number-line) help 8-to-14 years old children better estimate fractional magnitudes. Paper three shows that analogical stories about tools (i.e., hook use) help 3-to-9 years old children develop new tools creatively in a novel situation (i.e., bending a pipe cleaner into a hook to retrieve a bucket). In all three papers, children are not explicitly told to make comparisons, suggesting that children spontaneously compare similar structures and make analogical generalizations. Finally, paper four shows that pre- or perinatal brain injuries delay and reduce higher-order thinking talk (HOTT, e.g., language involving relations) among 14-to-58 months old children, whereas high family income increases the amount of HOTT. Together, these papers break new ground in the role of analogy in cognitive development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Shuyuan Yu, Ohio State University

• John E Opfer, The Ohio State University

Individual Presentations

• Spontaneous Structural Alignment Contributes to Children’s Learning of Theory of Mind - Presenting Author: Dedre Gentner, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Christian Hoyos, Exponent; Non-Presenting Author: William Horton, Northwestern University

• Analogy Facilitates Fraction Learning - Presenting Author: Shuyuan Yu, Ohio State University; Non-Presenting Author: Marta Mielicki, Kent State University; Non-Presenting Author: Charles Fitzsimmons, Kent State University; Non-Presenting Author: Clarissa A. Thompson, Kent State University; Non-Presenting Author: John E Opfer, The Ohio State University

• Can Children Develop New Tools via Analogical Generalization? - Presenting Author: Micah B Goldwater, University of Sydney; Non-Presenting Author: Kate Ridgway, University of New South Wales; Non-Presenting Author: Robyn Waters, University of Sydney

• Developmental Trajectories of Higher-order Thinking Talk Differ for Typically-developing Children and Children with Brain Injuries - Non-Presenting Author: Rebecca Frausel, Pennsylvania State University, Erie; Presenting Author: Elayne Vollman, Lake Forest College; Non-Presenting Author: Antonia Muzard; Non-Presenting Author: Lindsey Engle Richland, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Cohen Levine, University of Chicago