The effects of similarity of theme and instantiation in analogical reasoning

The influence of 2 types of structural similarity on analogical reasoning was examined. The theme of a story is a structural component that constrains other relationships in the story. Another structural component is the way in which the theme is implemented, Participants received pairs of stories that varied in the similarity of these two components. Participants in Experiment I judged stories containing similar themes as more analogous than stories with dissimilar themes. Likewise, stories with similar implementations were judged as more analogous than stories with dissimilar implementations. Experiment 2 revealed a similar pattern when participants had the opportunity to transfer information from source to target stories. Greater transfer was seen for stories with similar themes than for stories with dissimilar themes. Greater transfer was also seen for stories with similar implementations of different themes than for stories with different implementations.