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Cognitive load and semantic analogies: Searching semantic space.
Jean-Pierre Thibaut1, Robert French, Milena Vezneva
1University of Burgundy, LEAD-CNRS UMR 5022, Pôle AAFE-Esplanade Erasme BP 26513, 21065 Dijon Cedex, France. jean-pierre.thibaut@u-bourgogne.fr
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 13, 2010
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Psychology
Background:
- Analogy-making is crucial for higher-order thinking.
- Executive functions are key to cognitive development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how children's age impacts their performance on semantic analogy tasks with competing matches.
- To explore the role of executive functioning in analogy-making development.
Main Methods:
- Children of various ages completed analogy-making tasks (A:B::C:D).
- Tasks included semantic analogies with varying distractor types and association strengths.
Main Results:
- Performance on analogy tasks is significantly influenced by distractor characteristics and term association strength.
- Age-related differences in executive functioning correlate with analogy-making abilities.
Conclusions:
- Analogy-making skills in children are constrained by executive functioning limitations.
- Developmental changes in executive functions explain age-related performance variations in analogy tasks.
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