Reasoning about curvilinear motion: using principles or analogy.
People possess implicit theories about the motion of objects, theories that are often incorrect. When asked to predict the path of an object emerging from a curved tube, for example, people often say that the object will continue to follow a curved path. However, when solving a problem that reminds them of a familiar previous instance, people often reason by analogy to the instance. In this study, we show that a previous instance must be very superficially similar to a problem in order to be used as an analogy; otherwise, people will use their implicit theories as the basis of their reasoning.
Catrambone
R
R
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta 30332, USA.
Jones
C M
CM
Jonides
J
J
Seifert
C
C
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving