Seek, and ye shall find: Differences between spontaneous and voluntary analogical retrieval

Article

Authorship

TRENCH, JUAN MAXIMO ; Olguin, Maria Valeria ; MINERVINO, RICARDO ADRIAN

Date

2016

Publishing House and Editing Place

Psychology Press

Magazine

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 69 (pp. 698-712) Psychology Press

Summary Information provided by the agent in SIGEVA

The present study tackles two overlooked aspects of analogical retrieval: (1) whether argumentation activities elicit a spontaneous search for analogical sources, and (2) whether strategic search can relax the superficial bias typically obtained in experimental studies of analogical retrieval. In Experiment 1, participants had to generate arguments for a target situation under three conditions: without indication to use analogies, with indication to use analogies, and with indication to search ... The present study tackles two overlooked aspects of analogical retrieval: (1) whether argumentation activities elicit a spontaneous search for analogical sources, and (2) whether strategic search can relax the superficial bias typically obtained in experimental studies of analogical retrieval. In Experiment 1, participants had to generate arguments for a target situation under three conditions: without indication to use analogies, with indication to use analogies, and with indication to search for sources within domains provided by the experimenters. Results showed that while voluntary search yields analogical retrievals reliably, the argumentation activity seldom elicits spontaneous remindings. A second set of results demonstrated that the superficial bias can be strategically relaxed, leading to a majority of distant retrievals. Experiment 2 replicated this result with the instruction to search within domains different from that of the target, and without providing a list of specific domains. The theoretical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.