Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery

Holland, John H.; Holyoak, Keith J.; Nisbett, Richard E.; Thagard, Paul

doi:10.1109/mex.1987.4307100

Cited by 973 publications

(961 citation statements)

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“…These tropes are not just rhetorical devices but essential components of human cognition (Holland et al 1989;Gentner and Holoyak 1997;Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). Cognitive psychologists suggest that similes stress literal similarities based on similarities in attributes ("Milk is like Water" -both are liquid substances), whereas analogies leverage similarities in relationships between the domains rather than in attributes ("Heat is like Water" -heat flows like water).…”

Section: The Role Of Analogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Etzion

Ferraro

2010

Organization Science

330

319

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We study institutional entrepreneurship in an emergent field by analyzing the case of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its efforts to purposefully institutionalize the practice of sustainability reporting. We suggest that analogies affect institutionalization processes through two mechanisms. In early stages of institutionalization, analogy operates primarily as a normative mechanism and adoption is driven mainly by an instrumental logic. This emphasis on similarity to existing institutions stresses conformity and promotes legitimacy. Yet, analogies can also have a cognitive effect on institutional design, especially once initial acceptance from the environment has been secured, by directing attention towards incongruences between the emergent institution and its analogical source. Institutional entrepreneurship can spur innovation and departure from existing institutions by highlighting limitations of the analogical source and providing a compelling value-rational argument underscoring the worth of the new institution. This theoretical contribution helps explain how analogies to existing institutional practices can both provide legitimacy to novel institutions and constitute the basis for a creative process of institutional design.3 Institutional entrepreneurship is a delicate balancing act between two conflicting tasks. On the one hand institutional entrepreneurs must disguise the radical nature of their enterprise in order to engage supporters and evade the wrath of incumbents, while on the other they cannot adhere too closely to existing practices, for by doing so, they will not be able to further any meaningful change (Aldrich and Fiol 1994). Institutional entrepreneurs need to become skilled cultural operatives, fashioning stories in order to attract resources. In this work it is essential to "balance the need for legitimacy by abiding by societal norms about what is appropriate with efforts to create unique identities that may differentiate and is relatively well-studied. However, the role of analogy in shaping institutional design has not been explored in depth. Tropes like simile, analogy and metaphor can help gather political support and legitimacy, but they also lead to analytical closure (Oswick, Keenoy and Grant 2002). Remaining within the confines of a clearly defined analogy cannot lead to evolution to profoundly different institutions (Hoffman and Ventresca 1999). Furthermore, the analogy cannot be discarded at later stages (Ocasio and Joseph 2005) when deeper institutional change is being advocated, as cognitive lock-in has already limited external constituents' receptivity to alternative scenarios. How, then, do analogies shape the construction and evolution of proto-institutions? 4In this article we address the role of analogies in institutional change by presenting a longitudinal case-study of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its strategies to promote and institutionalize sustainability reporting practices. GRI, a non-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam, ...

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Section: The Role Of Analogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Etzion

Ferraro

2010

Organization Science

330

319

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“…As readers should have gathered by now, Boolean concepts are powerful. Their realization as half-adders in silicon chips suffices for the central processing units of modern computers; they lie at the heart of genetic algorithms (see, e.g., Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, & Thagard, 1986); and they underlie theorems about what can, and cannot, be learned in a tractable way (Valiant, 1984).…”

Section: Studies Of Boolean Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental models of Boolean concepts

Goodwin

Johnson‐Laird

2011

Cognitive Psychology

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a b s t r a c tNegation, conjunction, and disjunction are major building blocks in the formation of concepts. This article presents a new model-based theory of these Boolean components. It predicts that individuals simplify the models of instances of concepts. Evidence corroborates the theory and challenges alternative accounts, such as those based on minimal descriptions, algebraic complexity, or structural invariance. A computer program implementing the theory yields more accurate predictions than these rival accounts. Two experiments showed that the numbers of models of a Boolean concept predict the difficulty of formulating a description of it. As mental models may also underlie deductive reasoning, the present theory integrates two hitherto separate areas of investigation.

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“…Both kinds of inferences are of psychological interest, but inductive inferences appear to play a more central role in everyday cognition. We have already seen examples related to language, vision, and motor control, and many other inductive problems have been described in the literature (Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, & Thagard, 1986;Anderson, 1990). This paper describes a formal approach to inductive inference that should apply to many different problems, but we will focus on the problem of property induction (Sloman & Lagnado, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Structured statistical models of inductive reasoning.

Kemp¹,

Tenenbaum²

2009

Psychological Review

221

282

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Everyday inductive inferences are often guided by rich background knowledge. Formal models of induction should aim to incorporate this knowledge, and should explain how different kinds of knowledge lead to the distinctive patterns of reasoning found in different inductive contexts. We present a Bayesian framework that attempts to meet both goals and describe four applications of the framework: a taxonomic model, a spatial model, a threshold model, and a causal model. Each model makes probabilistic inferences about the extensions of novel properties, but the priors for the four models are defined over different kinds of structures that capture different relationships between the categories in a domain. Our framework therefore shows how statistical inference can operate over structured background knowledge, and we argue that this interaction between structure and statistics is critical for explaining the power and flexibility of human reasoning. 2 Structured statistical models of inductive reasoningHumans are adept at making inferences that take them beyond the limits of their direct experience. Even young children can learn the meaning of a novel word from a single labeled example (Heibeck & Markman, 1987), predict the trajectory of a moving object when it passes behind an occluder (Spelke, 1990), and choose a gait that allows them to walk over terrain they have never before encountered. Inferences like these may differ in many respects, but common to them all is the need to "go beyond the information given" (Bruner, 1973).Two different ways of going beyond the available information can be distinguished.Deductive inferences draw out conclusions that may have been previously unstated but were implicit in the data provided. Inductive inferences go beyond the available data in a more fundamental way, and arrive at conclusions that are likely but not certain given the available evidence. Both kinds of inferences are of psychological interest, but inductive inferences appear to play a more central role in everyday cognition. We have already seen examples related to language, vision, and motor control, and many other inductive problems have been described in the literature (Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, & Thagard, 1986;Anderson, 1990). This paper describes a formal approach to inductive inference that should apply to many different problems, but we will focus on the problem of property induction (Sloman & Lagnado, 2005). In particular, we consider cases where one or more more categories in a domain are observed to have a novel property, and the inductive task is to predict how the property is distributed over the remaining categories in the domain. For instance, given that bears have sesamoid bones, which species is more likely to share this property: moose or salmon (Rips, 1975; Osherson, Smith, Wilkie, Lopez, & Shafir, 1990)? Moose may seem like the better choice since they are more similar biologically to bears, but different properties can lead to different patterns of inference. For example, given that a c...

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Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery

Cited by 973 publications

References 0 publications

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Mental models of Boolean concepts

Structured statistical models of inductive reasoning.

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