Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:23:01.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Implicit analogy: New direct evidence and a challenge to the theory of memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2008

Anthony J. Greene
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53223. [email protected]://www.uwm.edu/~ag

Abstract

The authors propose that analogical reasoning may be achieved without conscious or explicit deliberation. The argument would be strengthened by more convincingly demonstrating instances of analogy that do not require explicit deliberation. Recent findings demonstrate that deliberative or explicit strategies are not necessary for flexible expression under novel circumstances (Greene et al. 2001) to include analogical transfer (Gross & Greene 2007). This issue is particularly critical because the existence of relational priming poses a serious challenge to the widely held notion that flexible expression of learned relations requires deliberative processes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chun, M. M. & Phelps, E. A. (1999) Memory deficits for implicit contextual information in amnesic subjects with hippocampal damage. Nature Neuroscience 2:844–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, N. J., Poldrack, R. A. & Eichenbaum, H. (1997) Memory for items and memory for relations in the procedural/declarative memory framework. Memory 5:131–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellenbogen, J. M., Hu, P. T., Payne, J. D., Titone, D. & Walker, M. P. (2007) Human relational memory requires time and sleep. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 104:7723–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, A. J. (2007) Human hippocampal-dependent tasks: Is awareness necessary or sufficient? Hippocampus 17:429–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, A. J., Gross, W. L., Elsinger, C. L. & Rao, S. M. (2006) An fMRI analysis of the human hippocampus: Inference, context and task awareness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18:1156–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, A. J., Gross, W. L., Elsinger, C. L. & Rao, S. M. (2007) Hippocampal differentiation without recognition: An fMRI analysis of the contextual cueing task. Learning and Memory 14:548–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, A. J., Spellman, B. A., Dusek, J. A., Eichenbaum, H. B. & Levy, W. B. (2001) Relational learning with and without awareness: Transitive inference using nonverbal stimuli in humans. Memory and Cognition 29:893902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gross, W. L. & Greene, A. J. (2007) Analogical inference: The role of awareness in abstract learning. Memory 15:838–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reber, P. J., Knowlton, B. J. & Squire, L. R. (1996) Dissociable properties of memory systems: Differences in the flexibility of declarative and nondeclarative knowledge. Behavioral Neuroscience 110:861–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ripoll, T., Brude, T. & Coulon, D. (2003) Does analogical transfer involve a term-to-term alignment? Memory and Cognition 31:221–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryan, J. D., Althoff, R. R., Whitlow, S. & Cohen, N. J. (2000) Amnesia is a deficit in relational memory. Psychological Science 11:454–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schunn, C. D. & Dunbar, K. (1996) Priming, analogy, and awareness in complex reasoning. Memory and Cognition 24:271–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Squire, L. R. (1992) Memory and the hippocampus: A synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans. Psychological Review 99:195231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed