Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

We describe elements of a cognitive theory of analogical reasoning. The theory was developed using protocol data and has been implemented as a computer model. In order to constrain the theory, it has been developed within a problem-solving context, reflecting the purpose of analogical reasoning. This has allowed us to develop: A purpose-constrained mapping process which makes learning and debugging more tractable; An evaluation process that actively searches for bugs; And a debugging process that maintains functional aspects of base models, while adding target-appropriate causal explanations. The active, knowledge-based elements of our theory are characteristic of mechanisms needed to model complex problem-solving.