Dedre Gentner
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View article: How Structure-Mapping Can Improve K-12 Education
How Structure-Mapping Can Improve K-12 Education Open
Comparisons are commonplace in children's learning and in K-12 education, but teachers are given limited guidance in how best to scaffold students' comparisons to lead to the best learning outcomes. Structure mapping theory offers a well a…
View article: Spatial alignment supports comparison of life science images.
Spatial alignment supports comparison of life science images. Open
Visual comparisons are pervasive in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction and practice. In previous work, adults' visual comparisons of simple stimuli were faster and more accurate when the layout of a displa…
View article: Children’s Early Spontaneous Comparisons Predict Later Analogical Reasoning Skills: An Investigation of Parental Influence
Children’s Early Spontaneous Comparisons Predict Later Analogical Reasoning Skills: An Investigation of Parental Influence Open
Laboratory studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of making comparisons on children’s analogical reasoning skills. We extend this finding to an observational dataset comprising 42 children. The prevalence of specific comparisons, whi…
View article: Spatial supports for comparison in educational science images
Spatial supports for comparison in educational science images Open
Images, such as photographs and diagrams, play an important role in the teaching and learning of science. To optimize student learning, educational science images should be designed to facilitate the cognitive processes relevant to compreh…
View article: Spatial Alignment Facilitates Visual Comparison in Children
Spatial Alignment Facilitates Visual Comparison in Children Open
Visual comparison is a key process in everyday learning and reasoning. Recent research has discovered the spatial alignment principle, based on the broader framework of structure‐mapping theory in comparison. According to the spatial align…
View article: Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain
Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain Open
This paper explores the processes underlying verb metaphoric extension. Work on metaphor processing has largely focused on noun metaphor, despite evidence that verb metaphor is more common. Across three experiments, we collected paraphrase…
View article: Analogy Generation in Science Experts and Novices
Analogy Generation in Science Experts and Novices Open
There is a critical inconsistency in the literature on analogical retrieval. On the one hand, a vast set of laboratory studies has found that people often fail to retrieve past experiences that share deep relational commonalities, even whe…
View article: Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain
Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain Open
This paper explores the processes underlying verb metaphoric extension. Work on metaphor processing has largely focused on noun metaphor, despite evidence that verb metaphor is more common. Across three experiments, we collected paraphrase…
View article: Students Prefer to Learn from Figures that Include Spatial Supports for Comparison
Students Prefer to Learn from Figures that Include Spatial Supports for Comparison Open
Visual comparison is used in education to convey important commonalties and differences. This process is more effective when the figures are spatially aligned so that the corresponding parts and relations are maximally clear (direct placem…
View article: Verbs are More Metaphoric than Nouns: Evidence from the Lexicon
Verbs are More Metaphoric than Nouns: Evidence from the Lexicon Open
When asked to paraphrase semantically strained sentences (e.g., the lantern limped), participants alter word meanings to fit the context (e.g., the light flickered). Judges who were asked to classify these meaning extensions classified ver…
View article: Analogical Comparison Promotes Theory‐of‐Mind Development
Analogical Comparison Promotes Theory‐of‐Mind Development Open
Theory‐of‐mind (ToM) is an integral part of social cognition, but how it develops remains a critical question. There is evidence that children can gain insight into ToM through experience, including language training and explanatory intera…
View article: Spatial alignment facilitates visual comparison.
Spatial alignment facilitates visual comparison. Open
Humans have a uniquely sophisticated ability to see past superficial features and to understand the relational structure of the world around us. This ability often requires that we compare structures, finding commonalities and differences …
View article: Cognitive Science Is and Should Be Pluralistic
Cognitive Science Is and Should Be Pluralistic Open
Núñez et al (2019) argue (1) that the field of Cognitive Science has failed, in that it has not arrived at a cohesive theory, and (2) that this is contrary to the intentions of the founders. Their survey of publication and citation pattern…
View article: The Coherence Imbalance Hypothesis: A Functional Approach to Asymmetry in Comparison
The Coherence Imbalance Hypothesis: A Functional Approach to Asymmetry in Comparison Open
Directional asymmetiy is a well-documented phenomenon in research on similarity, meuphor, and analogy. In this paper, we present an account of this phenomenon based on structural alignment. We propose that a major source of asymmetry is co…
View article: Why do metaphors seem deeper than similes?
Why do metaphors seem deeper than similes? Open
Figurative expressions in metaphor form (e.g., Marriage is a journey) seem stronger and deeper than expressions in simile form (e.g., Marriage is like a journey). We ran a study to examine the nature of these judgments. Participants read s…
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View article: Analogy and Abstraction
Analogy and Abstraction Open
A central question in human development is how young children gain knowledge so fast. We propose that analogical generalization drives much of this early learning and allows children to generate new abstractions from experience. In this pa…
View article: Issue Information
Issue Information Open
Keep this fi rst note short (about 400-800 words or fewer).Be sure to indicate the topic category that you think it fi ts (Increasing Range and Scope, Integration and Refl ection, or Great Debates).Say something about why this is a topic f…
View article: Analogical processes in children’s understanding of spatial representations.
Analogical processes in children’s understanding of spatial representations. Open
We propose that map reading can be construed as a form of analogical mapping. We tested 2 predictions that follow from this claim: First, young children's patterns of performance in map reading tasks should parallel those found in analogic…
View article: Language as cognitive tool kit: How language supports relational thought.
Language as cognitive tool kit: How language supports relational thought. Open
The extreme version of the Whorfian hypothesis-that the language we learn determines how we view the world-has been soundly rejected by linguists and psychologists alike. However, more moderate versions of the idea that language may influe…
View article: Extending SME to Handle Large‐Scale Cognitive Modeling
Extending SME to Handle Large‐Scale Cognitive Modeling Open
Analogy and similarity are central phenomena in human cognition, involved in processes ranging from visual perception to conceptual change. To capture this centrality requires that a model of comparison must be able to integrate with other…