Analogy is ubiquitous in learning and discovery. Teachers use analogies to past problem types to help students appreciate the structure of new problems and doctors routinely use analogies to diagnose illness and prescribe treatment. Scientists use analogies to explain their work as well as to discover new possibilities, and politicians use analogies to past events to argue for current policy decisions. Analogy problems have proven to be the """"""""gold standard"""""""" of intelligence tests for nearly a century. Analogy affects every area of peoples? lives, and thus is of paramount importance to understanding human cognition. The proposed research will investigate the constraints imposed on analogical reasoning by working memory and inhibitory processes, two dominating concepts in current cognitive psychology. Analogical reasoning, like all forms of relational reasoning, requires the binding of objects to relations and the integration of these relational structures. It is a fundamental hypothesis of this proposal that these processes involve the use of working memory and inhibitory processes. A particular focus of this proposal is to develop a model of analogical reasoning that is neurally-plausable and is sensitive to the constraints of working memory and inhibition. In order to accomplish this goal, results from dual-task experiments and from brain-damaged patients will be modeled in a neurally-plausible model of analogical reasoning (LISA). The results of the proposed experiments will contribute to our understanding of this important human ability and provide avenues for future research in importance of constraints in real world settings.
| Krawczyk, Daniel C; Morrison, Robert G; Viskontas, Indre et al. (2008) Distraction during relational reasoning: the role of prefrontal cortex in interference control. Neuropsychologia 46:2020-32 |
| Lu, Hongjing; Morrison, Robert G; Hummel, John E et al. (2006) Role of gamma-band synchronization in priming of form discrimination for multiobject displays. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 32:610-7 |
| Richland, Lindsey E; Morrison, Robert G; Holyoak, Keith J (2006) Children's development of analogical reasoning: insights from scene analogy problems. J Exp Child Psychol 94:249-73 |
| Viskontas, Indre V; Morrison, Robert G; Holyoak, Keith J et al. (2004) Relational integration, inhibition, and analogical reasoning in older adults. Psychol Aging 19:581-91 |
| Morrison, Robert G; Krawczyk, Daniel C; Holyoak, Keith J et al. (2004) A neurocomputational model of analogical reasoning and its breakdown in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. J Cogn Neurosci 16:260-71 |
