Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study analyzed how a working group used an analogy of "education as a pathway" as a tool for conceptual understanding and teamwork. The team's definition of the analogical structure remained consistent over the course of team work, but they applied the analogy to different targets. Ambiguities in the analogy contributed to its limited application as a tool in detailed analysis. Implications are noted with respect to how analogies are evaluated in team work, how the nature of a metaphor influences its applicability in analytical work, and how group process may affect analogy use in team work.