Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Making analogies is considered to depend on executivefunctions. We examined the role of the central executive insolving pictorial cross-mapping problems while generatingrandom digits ranging 1-3 for one group of subjects, and 1-9for another. We used three indices assessing different aspectsof randomness and a self-report measure to evaluate the effectof the concurrent task. Subjects who had to generate digitsbetween 1 and 9 perceived the task to be harder but stillproduced more random sequences than those in the smaller-range condition. Although the manipulation of cognitive loadwas successful, no difference was observed in the proportionof relational responses to the cross-mapping task, suggestingthat analogies may not be as cognitively demanding asotherwise assumed. We also provide correlational support forthe influence of individual differences in fluid intelligence onrelational mapping abilities.