Language and the career of similarity

Gentner, Dedre; Rattermann, Mary Jo

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511983689.008

Cited by 329 publications

(453 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…Analogical reasoning is nothing more than an extra step in the inductive process that establishes a relation between two (or more) relations. According to Gentner (1989) and Gentner and Rattermann (1991), this extra step is a relational shift that enables children to shift processing from the similarity between objects based on an abstracted common feature to a similarity between relations (pairs of objects having the same relation). Similarity search and inductive decisions may be saturated by statistical regularities that may enable the infant to make predictions of the future state of events based on their present patterning (Téglás et al 2011).…”

Section: From Inference and Problem Solving To The Language Of Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm

Δημητρίου

Spanoudis

Mouyi³

2011

Educ Psychol Rev

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This essay first summarizes an overarching theory of cognitive organization and development. This theory claims that the human mind involves (1) several specialized structural systems dealing with different domains of relations in the environment, (2) a central representational capacity system, (3) general inferential processes, and (4) consciousness. These systems interact dynamically during development so that changes in each are related to changes in others. The changes in all systems and the change mechanisms are described. This theory integrates research and theorizing from cognitive, developmental, and differential psychology. Based on this theory, a model for education is proposed that specifies, first, educational priorities for different phases of development according to the cognitive developmental milestones associated with each phase. The theory also specifies how education can educate students to (1) construct mental models for the sake of conceptual change, (2) use their central representational capacity efficiently, (3) advance analogical and deductive reasoning, (4) learn how to learn, and (5) become critical and creative thinkers. The theory is offered as an overarching paradigm for the architecture, the development, and the education of the human mind.

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Section: From Inference and Problem Solving To The Language Of Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm

Δημητρίου

Spanoudis

Mouyi³

2011

Educ Psychol Rev

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“…Similarly, much cognitive psychological research suggests that a child's cognitive development can be observed in the increasing relational complexity of the language and concepts the child employs, as he or she grows older (Andrews & Halford, 1998, 2002Gentner & Rattermann, 1991). Halford and colleagues have investigated relational complexity in terms of the "arity of relations," that is, the number of arguments related (Andrews & Halford, 2002, p. 154).…”

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confidence: 99%

Temporal Relations and Intelligence: Correlating Relational Performance With Performance on the Wais-III

et al. 2008

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“…When contexts do not have transparent structural alignments, the availability of GTs does not facilitate transfer. Any benefit of relational words on transfer between well-aligned situations would fit with other research on words, comparison, and abstraction of relations (Kotovsky & Gentner, 1996;Gentner & Rattermann, 1991). This influence of language adds to analogy research that implicates contextual similarities in application of abstractions (Barnett & Ceci, 2002;Bassok, 1998;Ross, 1987Ross, , 1989.…”

Section: Language and Abstractionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…If the very act of labeling serves as an invitation to form abstract, relational concepts (as suggested by Gentner & Namy, 1999;Gentner & Rattermann, 1991), then we may have seen all labels fostering better relational responding. Instead, the beneficial effects of labeling were mediated by how easy it was to actually form relational concepts, assuming that alignment makes it easier to compare and abstract relations.…”

Section: Language and Abstractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Words Promote Analogical Transfer?

Son¹,

Doumas²,

Goldstone³

2010

The Journal of Problem Solving

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Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to explore how and when verbal labels facilitate relational reasoning and transfer. We review the research and theory behind two ways words might direct attention to relational information: (1) words generically invite people to compare and thus highlight relations (the Generic Tokens [GT] hypothesis), and/or (2) words carry semantic cues to common structure (the Cues to Specific Meaning [CSM] hypothesis). Four experiments examined whether learning Signal Detection Theory (SDT) with relational words fostered better transfer than learning without relational words in easily alignable and less alignable situations (testing the GT hypothesis) as well as when the relational words matched and mismatched the semantics of the learning situation (testing the CSM hypothesis). The results of the experiments found support for the GT hypothesis because the presence of relational labels produced better transfer when two situations were alignable. Although the CSM hypothesis does not explain how words facilitate transfer, we found that mismatches between words and their labeled referents can produce a situation where words hinder relational learning.

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Language and the career of similarity

Cited by 329 publications

References 111 publications

Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm

Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm

Temporal Relations and Intelligence: Correlating Relational Performance With Performance on the Wais-III

When Do Words Promote Analogical Transfer?

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