10 TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THINKING Harrogate, June 15-19 2002 ANALOGY AS A TOOL FOR THINKING Alessandro Antonietti Department of Psychology Cognitive.

10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THINKING

Harrogate, June 15-19 2002

ANALOGYAS A TOOL

FOR THINKING

Alessandro Antonietti

Department of PsychologyCognitive Psychology Laboratory

Catholic University of Sacred Heart

Largo Gemelli 1 – 20123 Milano (Italy)

Email: [email protected]

SCHEDULEOF THE WORKSHOP

1. What is analogical thinking?

2. Analogical thinking is around us

3. Analogical thinking in our lives

4. Investigating analogical thinking

5. How to train analogical thinking

1. What is analogical thinking?

TRADITIONAL DEFINITION

Analogical thinking is based on the transfer of ideas from a familiar situation to a novel situation.

This induces one to extend some information, principles, or insights from a common set of knowledge and experiences to an unfamiliar domain.

This extension leads one to view a new situation from a different perspective producing a reorganisation, or to interpret it in an original way allowing for the discovery of new meanings.

AN EXAMPLE

A child gets hurt at school.

The teacher takes him to the school infirmary, a place where that child has never been.

When the child goes home, he tells his mother that in the morning, at school, he had been accompanied into the “ambulance-room”.

Up to that day the infirmary was an unknown concept for that child.

The strategy he used to face such an unfamiliar situation was to find an analogy with something which was familiar to him.

Since he knew very well what an ambulance was (he had a toy ambulance),he found that it looked like the new room where he had been taken for the first time in his life:- in the infirmary he saw objects that there were also in an ambulance- he realised that the function of the infirmary is similar to that of the ambulance.

FROM A UNI-DIRECTIONAL PROCESS ...

New situation: infirmary seems like ...

Familiar situation: ambulance

helps to understand ...

… TO A TWO-DIRECTIONAL PROCESS

helps tounderstand…

Organisation

King Arthur’s Round Table

helps to understand

Identified similarities

A LONG, CROSS-CULTURAL HISTORY

The "syllogism of three members of Dignaga”(ancient Indian logic)

1. The mountain is smoking.2. The kitchen-chimney is smoking since there is fire 3. There is fire on the mountain

The connection between the first and the third sentence is based on a concrete instance which suggests the following analogy:

smoke : mountain = smoke : kitchen smoke in the kitchen is produced by fire fire : kitchen = fire : mountain

2. Analogical thinking is around us

ANALOGY IN SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

ANALOGY IN FORENSIC REASONING

ANALOGY IN HUMOURISM

ANALOGY IN SPEAKING ABOUT THE MIND

ANALOGY IN ARTS

ANALOGY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ANALOGY IN SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

In Italian newspapers New Yorker Twin Tower’s attack was presented as analogous to:

Saracen raids in Italy Bubonic plague in Milan during the Middle Age in the XVIII century (G. Bocca, La Repubblica, 17.9.2001) (C. Magris, Il Corriere della Sera, 13.9.2001)

English conquest of Washington in 1812 Wall Street crisis in 1929(G. Bocca, La Repubblica, 17.9.2001) (G. Bocca, La Repubblica, 17.9.2001)

German invasion of Poland Pearl Harbor attack(P. Guzzanti, Il Giornale, 12.9.2001) Japanese kamikaze raids Dresda bombing

(C. Magris, Il Corriere della Sera, 13.9.2001)

Vietnam war Iraq-Kuwait conflictU.S. army attacks in Afghanistan in 1998 U.S. bombardment of Iraq and Beograd(R. Barenghi, Il Manifesto, 12.9.2001)

ANALOGY IN FORENSIC REASONING

VI century, Ireland :

St. Firmian lent a manuscript of the Book of Psalms, bought in Rome, to St. Columba.

St. Columba copied the manuscript.

St. Firmian disagreed and asked the hard right Diarmat to punish St. Columba. However, the Brehon Code included no law relevant to such a case.

Thus, Diarmat applied by analogy a law about cattle:

Who owns a cow, owns also its calf;

Analogously, who owns a book, owns also what is derived by that book (that is, its copies).

This phone is precious like a jewel

This shoe is comfortable and chic as a spider car

ANALOGY IN ADVERTISING

The quality of these tyres is so highas a five-star hotel

Milk is so lightas an airship

The output of this printer is so clean, tidy and clearas freshly laundered clothes

A watch sparklinglike champagne

“Women without men are

like fishes without bicycles”

ANALOGY IN HUMOURISM

Women’s soul

x + 3.5y [3 - 7y (4y + 2 x)] - 34 + 2xy

In order to satisfy readers’ requests

Women’s soul

x + 3.5y [3 - 7y (4y + 2 x)] - 34 + 2xy = 0

From K. Kraus’s aphorisms:

ANALOGY

IN

SPEAKING

ABOUT

THE MIND

ANALOGY IN ARTS

In poems, tales, novels …

In visual arts ...

(by Leonardo da Vinci)

In music ...

Among arts …

Shakespeare’s personal life (as suggested by the movie Shakespeare in love)

Romeo and Juliet, by W. Shakespeare DRAMA

West Side Story, by L. Bernstein MUSICAL

Sud Side Story, by C. Caputo MOVIE

ANALOGY IN SCIENCE ...

Let’s leave the last apple for Newton!

EDEN

Before ...

… and then

… AND IN TECHNOLOGY

The invention of the

locomotive by

Richard Trevithick

(1771-1833)

3. Analogy in our lives

Try to remind an analogy that you have made in the past.

Describe your analogy in writing.

What were you doing when the analogy occurred?

What function did the analogy play? Was it useful? For what?

How did the analogy occur?

[] I don't know [] Suddenly[] By attempts [] Other ways

Context of production of the analogies

Interaction 33.8%

Job 18.8%

Study 6%

Daily tasks 9%

Free time 11.3%

Cognitive tasks 6%

Solitude 10.5%

Missing response 4.5%

A DIARY STUDY

Participants: 48 people living in Milan and ranging in age between 20 and 60 years.

Functions that analogy played in participants' experience

Problem solving 4.5%

Decision making 2.3%

Comprehension of personal emotions 10.5%Comprehension of others’ emotions 27.1%Expression of personal emotions 8.3%

Explanation of abstract concepts 21.8%

Interior reflection 21.1%

Missing responses 4.5%

Way in which analogy occurred in the participants’ mind

I don't know 17.3%

Suddenly 60.2%

By attempts 11.3%

Other ways 6.8%

Missing responses 4.5%

4. Investigating analogical thinking

THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO STUDY ANALOGICAL THINKING EXPERIMENTALLY (Dreistat, 1969)

Problem: How is it possible to place 10 trees in a garden so that 5 rows of 4 trees each are formed?

Analogical cue:

Solution:

TODAY: THE STANDARD PROCEDURE (Gick & Holyoak, 1980)

Source: “An engineer plans the construction of an artificial lake to produce electric energy. According to his first plan, a single wide canal collects water coming from a valley and conveys it into the lake. However, the engineer realises that during the flood periods the stream of water flowing along the canal may be too strong and may damage the surrounding areas. He also realises that during the drought periods a single stream of water may be insufficient to feed the lake. In order to avoid these mishaps, the engineer elaborates a second plan. According to this plan, the lake is fed by four small canals whose total flow is the same as the single wide canal previously planned. These small canals are placed around the lake so that they convey water coming from four different valleys. In this way only small amounts of water can flow in each canal and thus during flood periods dangerous overflowing might not occur. At the same time, the lake is fed by water from various valleys, so that also during drought periods it is sufficiently fed.”

Target: “In a university lab a very expansive lightbulb which would emit precisely controlled quantities of light was being used in some experiments. One morning the research assistant responsible for operating the sensitive lightbulb came into the lab and found to her dismay that the lightbulb no longer worked. She realised that she had forgotten to turn it off the previous night. As a result the lightbulb overheated, and the filament inside the bulb had broken into two parts. The surrounding glass bulb was completely sealed, so there was no way to open it. The lightbulb could be repaired if a brief, high-intensity laser-ray could be used to fuse the two parts of the filament into one. Furthermore, the lab had the necessary equipment to do the job. However, a high-intensity laser ray would also break the fragile glass surrounding the filament. At lower intensity the laser ray would not break the glass, but neither would it fuse the filament. So it seemed that the lightbulb could not be repaired. How could you solve this situation?”

OPEN QUESTIONS:

- Why do people fail to apply spontaneously analogical thinking?

- How do people identify source-target correspondences?

- In everyday life we do not find sources completely isomorph to the target; can people benefit from partial sources and/or integrate partial sources to devise a whole solution plan?

- Do different ways of processing the source influence its transfer to the target?

- What role do individual differences play in analogical thinking?

ANSWERS:

- Why do people fail to apply spontaneously analogical thinking?Awareness of the source-target relationships is the crucial factor

- How do people identify source-target correspondences?Suddenly, not through a systematic mapping

- Can people benefit from partial source and/or integrate partial sources to devise a whole solution plan?Yes, they can

- Do different ways of processing the source influence its transfer to the target?Yes, they do: depth processing is more beneficial

- What role do individual differences play in analogical thinking?Intelligence plays no role; styles play a moderate role; domain familiarity facilitates analogical thinking

5. How to train analogical thinking

USUAL PROCEDURES

1. Completing proportional analogies:

patient : doctor = car : ?

Limits:

- poor materials, not ecologically valid

- only a kind of analogical thinking is trained

- well structured situations (whereas everyday occurrences of analogical thinking concern ill-defined situations)

2. Applying familiar concepts to topics to be learned

The functioning is analogous to the functioningof a pump of the heart

Limits

- the source is given (whereas in everyday situations the source has to be found or selected)

- (almost) perfect source-target correspondences (whereas in everyday situations only partial correspondences can be identified)

- only instructional, disciplinary aims

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS

1. To employ (culturally, aesthetically, emotionally etc.) rich, meaningful materials

R. M. Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus, I, 21:

“Spring is again here. The earth is like …”

“Spring is again here. The earth is like a child who …”

“Spring is again here. The earth is like a child who knows poems”

“I’m so lonelythat the mirror failsto reflect my image”

DESCRIBE YOURSELF:

I’m so ……………

that the ……………….

fails to ……………………………….

I like to see it lap the Miles - E. Dickinson, Poems, 585

And lick the Valleys up -And stop to feed itself at Ranks -And then - prodigious step

Around a Pile of Mountains -And supercilious peerIn Shanties - by the sides of Roads -And then a Quarry pare

To fit its RibsAnd crawl betweenComplaining all the whileIn horrid - hooting stanza -Then chase itself down Hill -

And neigh like Boanerges -Then - punctual as a Star -Stop - docile and onnipotentAt its own stable door -

2. To foster cross-modality analogies

MUSIC 1

MUSIC 2

3. To use multi-levels analogies

“Analogies and metaphors”: a training program consisting of a series of short stories underlying the same structure, even if characters, places, and situations are always changed.

Trainees are invited to find, analyse, complete, vary, or create analogies.

Stories concern different domains (historical environments, scientific topics, linguistic issues, social problems) and exercises to be performed activate different expressive codes (motor, pictorial, verbal).

Activities can be carried out differently, according to the main aims of the trainer:Three basic levels are proposed

text level: trainees have to process analogies found within a story or to match different stories to identify similarities;

real-life level: trainees are hinted at processing correspondences between stories and everyday-life situations and have to reflect about such correspondences; analogies are focused above all on practical aspects;

socio-emotional level: trainees work on similarities between affective and interpersonal issues involved in the stories and their own experience, and elaborate them according to a variety of suggestions.

4. To induce analogical transfer of strategies and methods

“Like Leonardo”: a training, under construction, aimed at teaching to transpose by analogy Leonardo da Vinci’s inventive procedures to trainees’ problems.

The structure of each units of the training is:

A - Considering a problem faced by LeonardoB - Proposing personal solutionsC - Analysing Leonardo’s solutionD - Highlighting the strategy underlying Leonardo’s solutionE - Applying such a strategy to the same problem to find further possible solutionsF - Showing as such a strategy succeeded in suggesting solutions to other problemsG - Applying the strategy to personal problems