Training for Facilitating Spontaneous Analogical Transfer

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the availability of training for solving a problem spontaneously by analogy where necessary and what kinds of requirements should be fulfilled in order to realize such training. In Experiment 1, the repetition of analogical transfer and the tasks for abstraction were examined and the significant effect of repetition were found. Experiment 2, revising the experimental design and developing some new tasks for enhancing training, was carried out to reexamine the repetition method, focusing on the effect of mapping processing and the solving problem alone. The results showed the repetition training with noticing the structural correspondence between the source and the target have some effects. These findings are discussed in terms of the recent studies of analogical transfer.