The Influence Factors and Intervention Promotion of Children’s Analogical Reasoning

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (2) : 386-392.

PDF(292 KB)
PDF(292 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (2) : 386-392.

The Influence Factors and Intervention Promotion of Children’s Analogical Reasoning

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Abstract

As a core feature of human intelligence, analogical reasoning is the process of drawing relationships between representations, specifically between prior knowledge and new situations or between representations of two domains. Previous studies have put forward many theories to explain children’s difficulties in solving analogical problems. Theories like ‘capacity limitation’, ‘knowledge limitation’ and ‘relational shift’ have provided some explanations in these difficulties, which promoted the development of children’s analogical reasoning. Based on the theories above, recently researchers try to investigate the influence factors of analogical reasoning from the perspectives of inhibitory control, working memory and analogical reasoning strategies. Inhibitory control and working memory have been demonstrated the crucial role in children's analogical reasoning by some behavioral studies. However, the interaction mechanism between inhibitory control and working memory in the development of analogical reasoning has not proved. Different studies with different paradigms may lead to different results. And the interference settings of these studies may need further consideration. Research involving computational model has?provided a new perspective for exploring the relationship between working memory and inhibitory control, capacity limitation and knowledge limitation. By using the computer model, researchers can control the input variables and compare their predictions with human performance in controlled experiments, which helps to clarify the role of some variables. Besides, analogical reasoning strategies have been proved to be an important influence factor of analogical reasoning. The use of eye movements helps researchers distinguish the analogical reasoning strategies of adults and children, proving that the project-first strategy is conducive to help children avoid the attraction of perceptual or distracted lure in the process of analogical reasoning. Research on the mechanism of children's analogy reasoning enables educators to foster students’ analogical reasoning. It has proposed by some researchers that providing a systematic guide for children in analogy can help them develop a powerful reasoning system and promote a deeper understanding of concepts in different disciplines. Language labels can help children focus on the similarity and shift from perceptual similarity to relational similarity, which are proved to be an effective way to facilitate children’s analogical reasoning. There exists another way to help children in analogical reasoning besides language labels. It was proved that the use of physical object representation of the relations is as useful as language labels to 4 years old children in analogical reasoning. Further studies?in children’s analogical reasoning can conduct in many perspectives. Firstly, the interaction between working memory and inhibitory control is still uncertain. Appropriate and uniform experimental materials can be used to further explore the interaction mechanism between inhibitory control and working memory. Secondly, according to Sternberg (1977), successful analogical reasoning requires four sub-processes: encoding, inference, mapping,?and application. There are few studies about the encoding and inference of analogy reasoning at present, which requires further exploration. Lastly, it has been demonstrated that Project-fist strategy is conducive in analogical reasoning. Investigating the use of analogical reasoning strategies for intervention can be a potential direction, and the relationship between different analogical strategies and intervention is worth further discussion.

Key words

analogical reasoning / children / influence factors / intervention / language label / physical representation

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The Influence Factors and Intervention Promotion of Children’s Analogical Reasoning[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(2): 386-392
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