Abstract

Analogies are often used to help provide explanations of unfamiliar phenomena by comparing them to familiar phenomena. Analogical explanations are of two kinds: ones that provide systematic clarification, and ones that give a causal account of why something happened. We describe a theory and implementation of analogical mapping that applies to both kinds of explanation. The theory says that the elements of one analog are mapped onto the elements of another on the basis of structural, semantic, and pragmatic constraints. Our program ACME (Analogical Constraint Mapping Engine) uses localist networks of units representing mapping hypotheses to determine the correspondences between analogs. This paper describes ACME'S application to eight analogies that have been used by chemistry teachers. 1 Analogy and Explanation Analogies have numerous functions. In problem solving and decision making, analogies to past cases can be used to suggest solutions to new problems [Holyoak & Thagard 1989, Hammond 1986, Kolodner and Simpson 1988,

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