Results of a series of studies using text comprehension tasks supported a model relating memory and reasoning processes developed by Caplan and Schooler. According to the model, people's performance on reasoning tasks is based on one of two kinds of processing. Episodic processing is based on recall of specific previous events. Abstraction-based processing is based on recall of rules and concepts people have abstracted from those events. This year's results provide direct proof that complex learning experience and analogy-based training encourage abstraction-based processing, whereas simple learning experience and no-analogy encourage episodic processing.
