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.

缺乏类比的人类语言，犹如失去条纹的斑马。学界普遍认为，理解类比的能力，亦即进行关系推理的能力，是人类与非人类动物认知能力之间的关键分界特征。现有研究尚未能可靠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。本研究报道了一种可实现跨物种类比推理能力直接比较的方法论方案。本研究证实，人类被试仅需极少语言指导即可自发完成类比辨别任务，且类比推理能力会受到类比复杂度的影响。进一步而言，参与者的任务表现与其流体智力（fluid intelligence）得分显著相关。上述研究结果揭示了人类类比推理能力的细微差异，并为跨物种间该能力的可靠比较提供了可行方案。