Data from "Relational Complexity Influences Analogical Reasoning Ability"

Human language without analogy is like a zebra without stripes. The ability to understand analogies, or to engage in relational reasoning, has been argued to be a key discontinuity between the cognitive abilities of human and non-human animals. Current studies have failed to robustly show that animals can perform more complex, relational discriminations, in part because such tests rely on linguistic or symbolic experiences, and therefore are not suitable for evaluating analogical reasoning in animals. We report on a methodological approach allowing for direct comparisons of analogical reasoning ability across species. We show that human participants spontaneously make analogical discriminations with minimal verbal instructions, and that the ability to reason analogically is affected by analogical complexity. Furthermore, performance on our task correlated with participants’ fluid intelligence scores. These results show the nuance of analogical reasoning abilities by humans, and provide a means of robustly comparing this capacity across species.

脱离类比的人类语言，恰似褪去条纹的斑马。理解类比的能力，亦即开展关系推理的能力，被认为是人类与非人类动物认知能力之间的关键分野。现有研究未能稳健地证实动物能够完成更为复杂的关系辨别任务，部分原因在于此类测试依赖语言或符号经验，因此并不适用于评估动物的类比推理能力。本研究提出了一种可实现跨物种直接比较类比推理能力的方法论路径。我们发现，人类被试仅需极少量言语指导即可自发完成类比辨别任务，且类比推理能力受类比复杂度的影响。此外，被试在本任务中的表现与其流体智力（fluid intelligence）得分相关。本研究结果既揭示了人类类比推理能力的精细化特征，也提供了一种能够稳健跨物种比较该能力的研究手段。