Gentner D, Rattermann M J, Forbus K D
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-2710.
Cogn Psychol. 1993 Oct;25(4):524-75. doi: 10.1006/cogp.1993.1013.
Similarity is universally acknowledged to be central in transfer, but recent research suggests that its role is complex. The present research attempts to isolate and compare the determinants of similarity-based access to memory and the determinants of the subjective soundness and similarity of a match. We predicted, based on structure-mapping theory, that subjective soundness would depend on the degree of shared relational structure, particularly higher-order structure such as causal bindings. In contrast, we predicted that memory retrieval would be highly sensitive to surface similarities such as common object attributes. To assess retrievability, in three studies, subjects were asked to read a large set of stories and were later given a set of probe stories that resembled the original stories in systematically different ways; e.g., purely relational analogies, surface-similarity matches, or overall (literal similarity) matches. Subjects were told to write out any of the original stories that came to mind. To assess subjective soundness, independent subjects (and also the same reminding subjects) were asked to rate the inferential soundness of each pair; i.e., how well inferences true of one story would apply to the other. As predicted, subjective soundness was highly related to the degree of common relational structure, while retrievability was chiefly related to the degree of surface similarity. Ratings of the similarity of the pairs did not predict the retrievability ordering, arguing against the possibility that the retrieval ordering simply reflected overall similarity. Further, a fourth study demonstrated that subjects given a forced-choice recognition task could discriminate between possible matches on the basis of relational structure, ruling out the possibility that the poor relational retrieval resulted from forgetting or failing to encode the relational structure. We conclude that there is a dissociation between the similarity that governs access to long-term memory and that which is used in evaluating and reasoning from a present match. We describe a model, called MAC/FAC ("Many are called but few are chosen"), that uses a two-stage similarity retrieval process to model these findings. Finally, we speculate on the implications of this view for learning and transfer.
相似性在迁移中被普遍认为是核心要素，但近期研究表明其作用较为复杂。本研究试图分离并比较基于相似性的记忆提取的决定因素以及匹配的主观合理性和相似性的决定因素。基于结构映射理论，我们预测主观合理性将取决于共享关系结构的程度，特别是诸如因果关联等高阶结构。相比之下，我们预测记忆检索对诸如共同对象属性等表面相似性高度敏感。为评估可检索性，在三项研究中，要求受试者阅读大量故事，随后给予他们一组探测故事，这些探测故事与原始故事在系统上以不同方式相似；例如，纯粹的关系类比、表面相似性匹配或整体（字面相似性）匹配。要求受试者写出任何想到的原始故事。为评估主观合理性，让独立受试者（以及同样的回忆受试者）对每对故事的推理合理性进行评分；即一个故事中的推理在多大程度上适用于另一个故事。正如预测的那样，主观合理性与共同关系结构的程度高度相关，而可检索性主要与表面相似性的程度相关。对故事对相似性的评分并未预测检索顺序，这排除了检索顺序仅仅反映整体相似性的可能性。此外，第四项研究表明，接受强制选择识别任务的受试者能够基于关系结构区分可能的匹配，排除了关系检索不佳是由于遗忘或未能编码关系结构的可能性。我们得出结论，在支配长期记忆提取的相似性与用于评估当前匹配并从中推理的相似性之间存在分离。我们描述了一个名为MAC/FAC（“众多被召唤者，但选中者寥寥”）的模型，该模型使用两阶段相似性检索过程来模拟这些发现。最后，我们推测这一观点对学习和迁移的影响。
