AnalogicalProblemSolving

Howgoodareweat
findingrelevantprior
experience?

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Usingbackgroundknowledge
Gick&Holyoak(1980)
Hadpeoplereadastoryaboutageneralattackinga
fortress.
Theroadsaroundthefortressweremined
Generalsplituphisforcesandhadthemconvergeon
thefortressfrommanydirections.

Laterinthestudy,theyweregivenDunckers
radiationproblem
Doctorwithpatientwhohasaninoperabletumor
Raysstrongenoughtokillthetumorwoulddamage
thehealthytissue

Whatshouldthedoctordo?

Accessfailure
About10%ofpeoplesolvetheradiation
problemspontaneously
About30%ofpeoplesolveitiftheyfirst
readthestoryaboutthegeneral
Notmuchofagain.

Isthisanaccessproblemorauseproblem?
Ifgivenahinttousetheearlierstories,
about90%ofpeoplesolvetheproblem.
Suggeststhatitwasanaccessproblem.

Analogicalaccess
Findingrelevantbackgroundknowledgeishard
Therearemanypossibleexperiencesthatmightbe
relevant
Whichonesaremostlikelytoberelevant?

Situationsthataresimilartoonesyouhaveseen
before.
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Similarityisgood
Inmanycases,usinghighlysimilarbackground
knowledgeisgood.
Purchasedecisions
Knowingwhatbrandofpicklesyoubuywillnot
helpyoudecidewhatketchuptobuy.

Science(Dunbar)
Microbiologistsuseresultsfromonebacteriumto
decidewhatstudiestodoonanotherbacterium.

Itisrarethatdistantsimilaritiesareuseful.

Retrievinganalogs
Gentner,Rattermann,&Forbus
Peoplereadastory
Hawkgivesfeatherstohunterforarrowsinexchangefor
hunternotshootinghawk.

Later,peoplereadanotherstory:
Similar(S):Eaglegivesfeatherstoarcher
MereAppearance(MA):Eaglefliesneararcherytournament
Analogy(AN):Onecountrygivesmissileguidancesystemsto
anotherinexchangefornotattackingit.
NoMatch(NM):Onecountryhasrivers,anotherdoesnot.

PeoplegivenSandMAretrievestory
PeoplerateSandANassimilar

Modelsofaccess
Howdoweaccessanalogies?
Manymodelshavebeendeveloped
Mostofthemaretwostagemodels.

Stage1:Searchthroughmemorytofindthings
thataregenerallysimilar
Thingsfromthesamedomainareoftenretrieved
Onlyasmallnumberofitemspassthisfilter

Stage2:Findthingsthatareanalogous
Determininganalogiesiseffortful
Dothistaskonlyonitemsthatpassstage1

Accessanduse
Similaritiesmayalsoaffectuseofknowledge
Wordproblems(Ross)
Type:

Example Similar Cross-mapped Other domain

Context

Golf

Thing assigned

Caddies Caddies Players

Golf

Golf

Who assigned to Players Players Caddies

Pizza
Children
Cups

Retrievalaffectedbydomainsimilarity
Bothsimilarandcrossmappedexamplesretrieved

Peoplefoundithardtoapplycrossmapped

examples.

Overcomingaccessproblems
Expertsarebetteratanalogicalretrieval
Theyarebetteratfindinggoodanalogies
Theyarelessinfluencedbycrossmappings

Formingaschemamayhelpaccess
Comparingafewanalogsduringlearninghelps
retrieval

Learningaboutsubgoalsmayhelpaccess
Anexamplemaybeindexedbythesubproblemsthat
ithelpstosolve.

Casebasedreasoning
AnArtificialIntelligencetechnique
Solvesproblemsbasedonknownepisodes

StagesofCasebasedreasoning

Access
Adaptation
Evaluation
Updatingofmemory

CHEF:Anexample
Szechuancooking(Hammond)
Hadafailurecookingbeefandbroccoli
Broccolicameoutsoggy

Retrievepastknowledgeaboutsimilarfailures
Othercasesofsoggyvegetables

Findacaseofbeefandsnowpeas
Whencookingbeef,noticethatmeatsweats
Solutioninthatcase:Cookvegetablesfirst,putthem
aside,thencookbeef.

Adaptcasetocurrentsituation