The Structure of Similarity

本研究涉及相似性结构和相似性判断的心理学理论的发展和检验。相似性是一个基本的概念，几乎所有方面的认知，理论和应用。例如，记忆理论依赖于人们经常被提醒类似事件的观察，学习理论基于学习和测试条件之间的相似性来预测迁移。在日常生活中，人们所犯的错误往往是基于使用不恰当的相似匹配，大量的学习和训练转移似乎是由人们发现的相似之处决定的。因此，充分的相似性理论对于理解认知及其应用的理论进步至关重要。这项研究源于一个基本的见解，即两个事物的相似性不仅取决于特征或部分的相似性，还取决于这些部分如何组合在一起，以及部分之间的关系。以往的研究已经证明了形式化数学模型在理解属性在相似性中的作用方面的优势。目前的研究将应用和扩展这些先前的形式，以纳入关系对相似性的贡献，除了属性的作用。将结构与处理原理分离开来对于理解各种实验结果至关重要，例如(1)对象a与对象B的相似性可能不同于B与a的相似性，(2)a与B的相似性可能取决于存在的其他对象。(3)给对象A和B添加相同的属性可能会改变判断它们中哪一个与对象c更相似。初步研究表明，这些观察结果在很大程度上取决于相似性是否基于属性、关系、或者是属性和关系的混合。大多数的研究包括向人们展示材料（例如，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，不同任务中的反应时间和错误将提供一个间接的相似性度量。相似和类比的计算机模拟将模拟实验结果。本研究还将开始研究结构相似性在学习和概念形成中的作用。

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.