Effects of Partial Analogies on Solving an Ill-Defined Problem

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out to verify whether in Duncker's radiation problem undergraduates and secondary school students take advantage of partial analogies (i.e, analogies providing subjects with only one element of the solution) and can integrate two partial analogies to deduce a solution plan which may be transferred successfully to the target problem. Subjects were initially presented verbal stories (Exp. 1, n = 112) or visual patterns (Exp. 2, n = 80) describing situations structurally similar to Duncker's problem and to one of its possible solutions. Then subjects had to solve the target problem. Results of both experiments showed that partial analogies play weak heuristic functions and that two partial analogies can provide a complete problem-solving strategy for the target problem only if their order of presentation corresponds to the sequence of the solution steps.