Cognitive load and semantic analogies: Searching semantic space.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the performance of children of different ages on an analogy-making task involving semantic analogies in which there are competing semantic matches. We suggest that this can best be studied in terms of developmental changes in executive functioning. We hypothesize that the selection of common relational structure requires the inhibition of other salient features, in particular semantically related matches. Our results show that children's performance in classic A: B:: C: D analogy-making tasks seems to depend crucially on the nature of the distractors and the association strength between both the A and B terms and the C and D terms. These results agree with an analogy-making account (Richland, Morrison, & Holyoak, 2006) based on different limitations in executive functioning at different ages.
Thibaut
Jean-Pierre
JP
University of Burgundy, LEAD-CNRS UMR 5022, Pôle AAFE-Esplanade Erasme BP 26513, 21065 Dijon Cedex, France. jean-pierre.thibaut@u-bourgogne.fr
French
Robert
R
Vezneva
Milena
M
D000367:Age Factors; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D012660:Semantics