Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study examines scaffolding techniques to support students' analogical comparisons with science images. Analogical comparison involves identifying deep relational structure over superficial similarities, which can be challenging without guidance. Across experiments, participants compared analogous evolutionary science images with or without various scaffolds: describing the relation, completing a mapping table, and spatial support for alignment. Results demonstrated that describing the relation and completing a mapping table, especially in combination, significantly enhanced scientific interpretations of the images. However, spatial support was ineffective. The findings highlight practical strategies for improving conceptual learning from science visuals.