Binary and Ternary Analogy by Children: Testing the Role of Insufficiently Developed Working Memory Capacity (WMC) Executive Functions.
Ghanaian classroom teachers face consistent challenges asking children to relate classroom interactions with the development of connected thinking in areas such as mathematical proficiency and reading comprehension. Inculcating inference-making ability in children places a cognitive burden on the executive control of the working memory capacity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between WMC and executive function, with specific reference to how inhibition as executive control influenced active retrieval and goal maintenance in the context of analogy distraction making.
Thus, the knowledge required to drive the present job market is one that has the following two fundamental attributes: a) Knowledge that is essentially inductive and analytical in reasoning; b) Knowledge that supports formulating hypothesis and drawing plausible inferences.
The ability to reason analogically, to be creative and adaptive and the ability to exhibit a general intelligence constitutes the hallmark of the human species as compared to the chimpanzee.
In this respect, helping children to develop analogical thinking is critical especially when many classroom teachers generally have consistent challenges asking children to link classroom interactions to develop connected thinking.
This study sought to seek answers to two questions: a) How do difficulties in binary and ternary relations influence analogy making among selected Ghanaian children; and b) Is analogical reasoning a function of the ability to integrate multiple relations, relational knowledge, and inhibitory control over surface similarities? The findings of this study provide support for the
relational primacy hypothesis in analogical reasoning.
Psychol Cogn Sci Open J. 2017; 3(2): 48-56. doi: 10.17140/PCSOJ-3-123