Category Assignment Theory on Analogical Thinking: a Challenge to Structure Mapping Theory

Ricardo A. Minervino; L. Micaela Tavernini; Máximo Trench

doi:10.46553/RPSI.18.36.2022.p7-26

Authors

Ricardo A. Minervino Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto Patagónico de Estudios en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IPEHCS)
L. Micaela Tavernini Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto Patagónico de Estudios en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IPEHCS)
Máximo Trench Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Instituto Patagónico de Estudios en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IPEHCS)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46553/RPSI.18.36.2022.p7-26

Keywords:

analogy, relational category, semantics, similarity

Abstract

The dominant theory of analogical thinking since the 1980s is the structure mapping theory. In this paper, a new theory about reasoning by analogy is presented: the category assignment theory. It is argued that this theory is able to explain better than the first how a specific type of analogies are interpreted and evaluated, namely, those in which the facts compared constitute examples of a schema-governed category. The arguments presented are accompanied by brief descriptions of the studies that provided support for the new theory. The responses of the structure-mapping theory to the objections raised by the category proposal are discussed.

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References

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