Structure-mapping theory

Structure-mapping theory is a theory of analogical reasoning, developed by Dedre Gentner, and for which she was awarded the David E. Rumelhart Prize for Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition.

As described by the prize committee:

"A central insight of this theory is that analogies consist of matching relational structures between a base domain and a target domain. The properties of objects in the domains need not match, and deeply nested relational structures are favored over independent relations. In the analogy between heat flow and water flow, for example, the relevant similarities involve a flow of some quantity from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, even though the domains differ in many superficial respects. This theory was implemented in the Structure-Mapping Engine (SME), which both formalized the theory and offered a computationally-tractable algorithm for carrying out the process of mapping structures and drawing inferences."

See Also

Structure mapping engine