Cited by 2,563Language, Metaphor, and CognitionAI-based Problem Solving and PlanningMemory Processes and Influences

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 27 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 21 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Analogical problem solving

Open access
Gick, Mary L., Holyoak, Keith J.·1980·Cognitive Psychology

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Across five experiments, people could use a story analogy from a distant military domain to solve Duncker’s radiation problem, especially when given a hint to use the story. Without such a hint, spontaneous noticing and transfer dropped sharply, even though the analogy was often retrievable and usable once prompted.

Key findings

  • In Experiment I, all 10 subjects given the Attack-Dispersion story produced the dispersion solution, versus 0 of 10 controls; the Open Supply Route story raised open-passage proposals to 70% versus 20% in other conditions, and the Tunnel story raised operation proposals to 80% versus 43% elsewhere.
  • In Experiment II, the Attack story produced 76% total dispersion solutions (57% complete, 19% partial), the Parade story produced 49% (31% complete, 18% partial), and controls produced 8%; the less analogous Parade problem statement reduced transfer. Effective analogies also narrowed search: non-dispersion proposals averaged 1.17 for Attack, 1.40 for Parade, and 2.12 for controls, while healthy-tissue-protection alternatives appeared for 2% of Attack, 16% of Parade, and 28% of control subjects.
  • In Experiment III, 22 of 45 subjects (49%) generated the military dispersion solution; 9 of those 22 (41%) then produced a radiation dispersion solution, compared with 3 of the remaining 23 (13%). This 41% was lower than the 76% obtained in Experiment II when the solution was supplied by the experimenter.
  • In Experiment IV, 11 of 12 hinted subjects (92%) produced the complete dispersion solution, but only 3 of 15 no-hint subjects (20%) did so, and probably only 1 noticed the analogy spontaneously. In Experiment V, 43% produced the solution before a hint and 76% eventually did; the incubation-control condition produced it for only 1 of 10 subjects (10%), and that subject did so before seeing the story.

Methods

  • Five experiments used Duncker’s radiation problem as the target and military stories as analogies. Experiment I used oral protocols with 40 undergraduates, 10 per condition, comparing three story types against a no-story control with experimenter prompts. Experiment II used a noninteractive booklet with 143 undergraduates assigned to Attack, Parade, or control. Experiment III had 46 students first solve the military problem and then the radiation problem. Experiment IV had 27 paid subjects memorize the critical story among two distractor stories and then solve the radiation problem with or without a hint. Experiment V had 47 paid subjects in Story First, Story Second, or Incubation Control conditions.
  • Main analyses scored solution types by independent scorers, used G² tests for condition comparisons, and supplemented these with protocol excerpts, helpfulness/creativity/practicality ratings, and recall scoring in Experiment IV.

Limitations

  • Stated by the authors: the study used only one target problem and a limited set of story analogies, so generalization is cautious; it remains unclear whether similar results would hold for more computational or multi-step problems; more work is needed on spatial representation, noticing, memory access, and mapping; post-hoc questionnaires may reflect hindsight; protocol analysis has obvious limits; and Experiment III was correlational, though additional evidence suggested a causal influence.
  • Evident from the text, not framed as author limitations: samples were undergraduates or paid subject-pool participants, several conditions had small numbers (e.g., 12 hinted and 15 no-hint subjects in Experiment IV; 10 incubation-control subjects in Experiment V), and Experiment I involved substantial experimenter prompting and feedback.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/0010-0285(80)90013-4

Cites

27 of 27 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

82 Own result · 54 Own interpretation · 12 No full text of the sources · 7 Own method · 5 Sources not found · 4 No basis given · 1 Not checked yet

Show all 84 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 60
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 4
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 25
81 of 81
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    There is an optimal level of abstraction at which analogical relations may be represented to effectively guide the solution process.

    “Similarly, we assume there is an optimal level of abstraction at which analogical relations may be represented in order to effectively guide the solution process.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Proposition 1' (the tumor is located in the interior of the patient's body) is included in the macrostructure for the radiation problem as an inference based on knowledge of where the stomach is located.

    “Incidentally, note that we assume proposition 1' is included in the macrestructure for the problem as an inference based on knowledge of where the stomach is located.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The person will use semantic knowledge to transform the relation of “capturing” into “destroying” via the common semantic core “overcoming”.

    “In the case of propositions 16 and 16', we assume the person will use semantic knowledge to transform the relation of “capturing” into the relation of “destroying,” operating on the common semantic core (i.e., “overcoming”) that links the two relations.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The verbal protocols obtained while subjects thought aloud provide valid evidence about their underlying problem-solving processes.

    “some subjects insisted that talking aloud hindered their thinking, and consequently did not say very much.”
    “While this type of protocol analysis has obvious limitations, it may at least provide some hints about the process of analogical problem solving, and in fact served in part to motivate subsequent experiments.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The independent rating task subjects' likelihood ratings are a valid proxy for the story analogies' actual effectiveness in Experiment I.

    “In order to assess whether subjects shared our intuitions we administered a rating task to 51 undergraduates, none of whom previously knew of any solutions to the radiation problem.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The experimenter's prompts and interactions in Experiment I did not create the analogous solutions or substantially distort the solution frequencies.

    “Since a primary concern in Experiment I was to obtain interpretabie oral protocols, a considerable amount of probing by the experimenter was essential.However, it would clearly be desirable to demonstrate that people can use analogies to generate problem solutions without interacting with the experimenter.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The control condition with no story is a valid baseline for assessing story analogy effects.

    “The control condition used no story at all, rather than an irrelevant story, because it seemed possible that an irrelevant story would actually interfere with the solution process.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The two distractor stories used in Experiment IV are disanalogous to the radiation problem.

    “However, the two distractor stories were intended to be as disanalogous to the radiation problem as possible.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Subjects' post-hoc ratings of story helpfulness accurately reflect their solution processes.

    “The results obtained with such post-hoc questionnaires must be interpreted with caution, since they may reflect hindsight rather than accurate memories of the solution process.Nevertheless, these rating results are at least a source of converging evidence.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Subjects' reports about whether they used the story accurately reflect their actual use of the story.

    “If we accept these reports at face value, it appears that the percentages of subjects in the two conditions who spontaneously noticed and used the analogy were identical (35% in both conditions).”
10 of 10

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Statistics recomputed

Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.

  • Consistentχ²(1) = 30.9reported p < .001 · recomputed p < .001

    “G2( 1) = 30.9,p < .001”

  • Consistentχ²(1) = 4.29reported p < .05 · recomputed p = .038

    “G2(1) = 4.29, p < .05”

  • ConsistentF(3, 36) = 4.17reported p < .025 · recomputed p = .012

    “F(3,36) = 4.17, p < .025”

  • ConsistentF(0.5, 160) = 1.32reported p > .25

    “F(.5,160) = 1.32, p > .25”

  • Consistentχ²(1) = 5.78reported p < .02 · recomputed p = .016

    “G2(1) = 5.78, p < .02”

  • Consistentχ²(1) = 4.61reported p < .05 · recomputed p = .032

    “G2( 1) = 4.61, p < .05”

6 of 6

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 32 references

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Hayes, 1977, Psychological differences among problem isomorphs, Vol. 2

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J.
Affiliations
University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
Holyoak, Keith J.
Venue
Cognitive Psychology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1980-07
Volume
12
Issue
3
Pages
306-355
ISSN
0010-0285 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1980169328
Cited by
2,552
References
32
Citations by year
2026: 33 · 2025: 71 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 61 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 94 · 2019: 133 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 82 · 2016: 91 · 2015: 78 · 2014: 104 · 2013: 104 · 2012: 98
FWCI
11.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (7701211)
  • National Institute of Mental Health
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI-based Problem Solving and Planning
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
Keywords
analogical problem solving, analogical reasoning, transfer of learning, distractor interference, problem-solving strategies

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