Impact of superficial similarity in the application phase of analogical problem solving

Two groups (n = 28, 30) of subjects solved a target problem after having learned either a superficially similar or a superficially dissimilar source. Structural similarity was kept constant. The problem materials were semantically rich short stories. Under both conditions, an equal. number of subjects solved the target problem. However, the similar source group produced more carefully elaborated solutions, shorter problem-solving protocols containing more references to the source and less to the target, and a different amount and kind of mapping statements than the dissimilar source group. Only adaptation performance did not differ. Results support the existence of surface similarity impacts in the analogy application phase. Relationships to findings from the domain of mathematical analogies as well as theoretical implications are discussed.