The Structure of Similarity

这项研究涉及的是开发和测试 相似结构与相似心理学理论 判断。 相似性是一个基本的概念， 认知的各个方面，理论的和应用的。 比如说， 记忆理论的基础是人们经常 提醒类似的事件，学习理论预测 学考相似迁移 条件 在日常生活中，人们犯的错误往往是 基于使用不适当的相似性匹配，以及良好的 学习和培训的转移似乎受到 人们发现的相似之处 因此，一个适当的理论， 相似性对于理解的理论进步是必不可少的 认知及其应用。 这项研究源于一个基本的见解，即相似性 两个事物的相似性不仅取决于特征的相似性， 部分，但也对这些部分是如何放在一起， 各部分之间的关系。 先前的研究表明， 形式化数学模型在理解 属性在相似性中的作用。 目前的研究将 应用和扩展这些以前的形式主义，以纳入 关系对相似性的贡献，除了作用 的属性。 结构与加工原理分离 对于理解各种实验结果至关重要， 例如（1）对象A与对象B的相似性可以 不同于B与A的相似性，（2）相似性 A到B的距离可以取决于存在什么其他对象，以及（3） 将相同的属性添加到对象A和B可能会改变 其中之一被判断为与对象C更相似。 初步研究表明，这些观察结果取决于 重要的是，相似性是否基于属性， 关系，或者属性和关系的混合。 大多数的研究都涉及到给人们提供材料 (e.g.,几何形状，物体的描述），并要求他们 做出相似性判断。 在其他研究中， 各种任务中的错误将提供一个间接的衡量标准， 相似性 相似性和类比的计算机模拟将 模拟实验结果。 这项研究也将开始 研究结构相似性在学习和 概念形成

This research is concerned with the development and testing of psychological theories of similarity structure and similarity judgments. Similarity is a concept fundamental to virtually all aspects of cognition, theoretical and applied. For example, theories of memory rely on the observation that people often are reminded of similar events, and theories of learning predict transfer on the basis of similarity between learning and test conditions. In everyday life, the errors people make are often based on the use of inappropriate similarity matches, and a good deal of learning and transfer of training appears to be governed by what people find similar. Thus, an adequate theory of similarity is essential for theoretical advances in understanding cognition and in their application. This research stems from the fundamental insight that similarity of two things depends not only on the similarity of features or parts, but also on how those parts are put together, the relations among the parts. Previous research has demonstrated the advantages of formal mathematical models in understanding the role of attributes in similarity. The current research will apply and extend these previous formalisms to incorporate the contribution of relations to similarity, in addition to the role of attributes. Separating structure from processing principles is crucial for understanding a variety of experimental results, such as (1) that the similarity of object A to object B may be different from the similarity of B to A, (2) that the similarity of A to B may depend on what other objects are present, and (3) that adding the same property to objects A and B may change which one of the them is judged to be more similar to object C. Preliminary research indicates that these observations depend importantly on whether similarity is based on attributes, relations, or mixtures of attributes and relations. Most of the studies involve presenting people with material (e.g., geometric forms, descriptions of objects) and asking them to make similarity judgments. In other studies, reaction times and errors in various tasks will provide an indirect measure of similarity. Computer simulations of similarity and analogy will model the experimental results. The research will also begin the study of the role of structural similarity in learning and concept formation.