PROCESS OF SOLVING ANALOGY ITEMS

Designed 4 studies to identify the processes used in solving analogy items. Exp. I suggested that an associative relatedness process was being used to generate and evaluate the relationships assumed to be important in the solution of the items. Exp. II and IV used a rank-order correlational technique to predict the judged degree of correctness of each item's alternative choices from ratings of the associative relatedness of the words comprising the alternative choices. Exp. III used a transfer design to determine experimentally the relation between primed associates of the analogy stem word pairs and the solutions to the items. Results suggest that associative relatedness among the item's words may account for 28-50% of the variance in the solutions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.