Abstract

This research investigates the development of analogy: In particular, we wish to study the development of systemoticity in analogy. Systematicity refers to the mapping of systems of mutually constraining relations, such as causal chains or chains of implication. A preference for systematic mappings is a central aspect of analogical processing in adults (Gentner. 1980, 1983). This research asks two questions: Does systematicity make analogical mapping easier? And, if so, when, developmentally, do children become able to utilize systematicity? Children aged 5-7 and 8-10 acted out stories with toy characters. Then they were asked to act out the same stories with new characters. Two variables were manipulated: systemat/c\ty, or the degree of explicit causal structure in the original stories, and the transparency of the abject-mappings. Transparency was manipulated by varying the similarity between the original characters and the corresponding new characters; it was included in order to vary the difficulty of the tronsfer task. If children can utilize systematicity, then their transfer accuracy should be greater for systematic stories. The results show: (1) As expected, transparency strongly influenced transfer accuracy (for both oge groups, transfer accuracy dropped shorply as the object correspondences became less transparent): and (2) for the older group, there was also a strong effect of systematicity and an interaction between the two variables. Given a systematic story, 9-year-alds could transfer it accurately regardless of the transparency of the object correspondence.