Tuk-Tuk: a unified account of similarity judgment and analogical mapping

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2005

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Larkey, Levi Benjamin

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Abstract

While similarity and analogy have traditionally been viewed as involving distinct psychological processes, the thesis of this dissertation is that similarity and analogy invoke the same mapping process. This thesis is supported by a growing body of evidence (Markman & Gentner, 1993a, 1993b, 1996; Gentner & Markman, 1997; Goldstone, 1994; Goldstone & Medin, 1994; Larkey & Markman, 2004). The main contribution of this dissertation is a unified account of similarity judgment and analogical mapping. This account is instantiated as Tuk-Tuk, a localist connectionist model of similarity and analogy that determines a mapping between representations via a dynamic process of interactive activation among feature, object, and relation correspondences. Tuk-Tuk differs from extant models of similarity and analogy in its ability to account for both patterns of similarity ratings and benchmark phenomena of analogy. In this dissertation, Tuk-Tuk’s performance is tested and contrasted with other models using a broad set of simulations, including simulations of a behavioral study of my own design.

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