The development of analogical reasoning : role of the executive component of inhibition

2011

We explored the development of the analogical reasoning. The traditional conception of this development is that it is dependent of knowledge accretion in children (Gentner, 1983, 1988; Goswami & Brown, 1989, 1990). We used a different approach which explains it as dependent of the development of the executive functions, particularly of the component of inhibition. The capacity of inhibition allows the suppression of the salient but irrelevant information for analogy-making in children. It is required while searching for the analogical solution. Nine studies involving a classical analogy-making task A : B :: C : ? were performed in this dissertation. The role of the capacity of inhibition wa…