A widespread tool in analogy research consists of multiple-choice tests that require identifying a relation between two situations and mapping it to another two situations, to find the correct response option. A key source of difficulty during such tests is attributed to the complexity of mapping. However, most people do not construct mappings purely in the mind, but also compare the emerging mapping with the existing response options, so their features may affect the reasoning process. This study examined the impact of relational match of error options with respect to the correct option (the proportion of correct elements present in a given error option) on the option selection. Results indicate that option selection depends almost linearly on the relational match. Moreover, the higher working memory capacity of the participants, the more relationally matching errors they select. The study suggests careful design of error options in multiple-choice reasoning tests, because the pattern of these options can affect the solution process.

Previous studies of multiple-choice analogy problems suggested that some people use a more efficient but also harderconstructive strategy (they build the complete representation of analogy), whereas others tend to use a less effective but simplerresponse elimination. We tested whether salience of incorrect options (five per figural analogy problem) affected strategy use.Salient options in 18 problems missed many features from the (sixth) correct option; options in 18 non-salient problems missedonly few features. When controlling for working memory capacity, eye tracking yielded strongly correlating patterns of datathat suggested, in line with previous reports, large individual variance in strategy use. However, participants overall spent50% less time analyzing salient than non-salient options, suggesting that salience promoted the constructive strategy. Thisconclusion was supported by pupil size significantly predicting accuracy on problems with salient options, but not on thosewith non-salient options (which additionally yielded lower accuracy).