Empirical Evidence for Derivational Analogy

Analogical problem solving is mostly described as transfer of a source solution to a target problem based on the structural correspondences (mapping) between source and target. Derivational analogy (Carbonell, 1986) proposes an alternative view: A target problem is solved by replaying a remembered problem solving episode. Thus, the experience with the source problem is used to guide the search for the target solution by applying the same solution technique rather than by a transferring the complete solution. We report an empirical study using the network problems presented in Novick and Hmelo (1994) as material. We can show that for this domain subjects exhibit a derivational rather than a transformational solution strategy. The empirical results are in correspondence with a theoretical analysis of mapping vs replay effort for this problem domain.