The Structure of Similarity

这项研究是与伊利诺伊大学的Dedre Gentner合作进行的，涉及相似结构和相似判断的心理学理论的发展和检验。相似性是几乎所有认知方面的基本概念，无论是理论上的还是应用上的。例如，记忆理论依赖于人们经常被提醒类似事件的观察，而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，人们犯的错误往往是基于对不适当的相似匹配的使用，而大量的学习和训练转移似乎是由人们发现的相似之处支配的。因此，一个充分的相似性理论对于理解认知及其应用方面的理论进步是至关重要的。这项研究源于这样一个基本认识，即两个事物的相似性不仅取决于特征或零件的相似性，还取决于这些零件是如何组合在一起的，零件之间的关系。以前的研究已经证明了形式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以前的形式主义，以纳入关系对相似性的贡献，以及属性的作用。将结构与处理原理分开对于理解各种实验结果是至关重要的，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什么其他对象，以及(3)将相同的属性添加到对象A和B可以改变它们中的哪一个被判断为更类似于对象C。初步研究表明，这些观察重要地取决于相似性是基于属性、关系还是基于属性和关系的混合。大多数研究涉及向人们展示材料(例如，几何形状、物体描述)，并要求他们做出相似判断。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衡量标准。相似和类比的计算机模拟将模拟实验结果。这项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, conducted in collaboration with Dedre Gentner of the University of Illinois, 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.