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This article explores analogy as a communicative tool used by parents to relate children's past experiences to unfamiliar concepts. Two studies explored how similarity comparisons and relational analogies were used in parent-child conversations about science topics. In Study 1, 98 family groups including 4- to 9-year-olds explored two science museum exhibits. Parents suggested comparisons and overtly mapped analogical relations. In Study 2, 48 parents helped first- and third-grade children understand a homework-like question about infections. Parents suggested relational analogies and overtly mapped analogical relations for children. Use of relational analogies was positively associated with scores on a post-task measure of understanding. These studies suggest that parents help children learn about unfamiliar science topics by suggesting personally relevant or culturally pervasive analogies and by elaborating unfamiliar and non-obvious analogical relations.
Analogical thinking has been considered an important component of human cognitive processing since the early days of modern psychology (James, 1890). An analogy is a comparison between two objects or processes that share some but not all features. For example, a plant is like a person because both need water to live. Analogical reasoning may guide children's acquisition of conceptual knowledge (Goswami, 2001). In one study, for example, kindergarten-age children predicted plant and animal behavior and traits based on their knowledge about people (Inagaki & Hatano, 1987). Analogies can also be used to solve unfamiliar problems (Holyoak, Junn, & Billman, 1984). Many developmental psychologists have suggested that analogy is a fundamental tool for knowledge acquisition and cognitive development (D. E. Brown & Clement, 1989; Cheng & Holyoak, 1985; Centner, 1989; Goswami, 1991).
In existing research, analogy is usually considered a tool individuals use to solve problems or learn about unfamiliar domains. We consider a different view, that of analogy as a communicative tool used by others to guide children's learning of culturally important knowledge. In particular, parent-child conversation is an important social context that exposes children to science facts and culturally valued ways of thinking about sciencerelated topics (Ash, 2002; Callanan & Jipson, 2001; Crowley, Callanan, Jipson, et al., 2001; Ellenbogen, 2002; Ochs, Taylor, Rudolph, & Smith, 1992; Snow & Kurland, 1996). In the current research we explored the idea that parents' conversational practices might help children use similarity comparisons, especially relational analogies, to...