A Connectionist Account of Analogical Development

We present a connectionist model that provides a mechanistic account of the development of simple relational analogy completion. Drawing analogies arises as a bi-product of pattern completion in a network that learns input/output pairings representing relational information. Analogy is achieved by an initial example of a relation priming the network such that the subsequent presentation of an input produces the correct analogical response. The results show that the model successfully solves simple A:B::C:D analogies and that its developmental trajectory closely parallels that of children. Finally, the model makes two strong empirical predictions.

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