Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The present research examined whether domain distance constitutes a useful criterion for selecting instructional analogies for psychological concepts. In Experiment 1, Psychology students and instructors rated interdomain analogies as more instructionally useful than intradomain analogies. Instructors' justifications suggested that this advantage stems from a higher perceived clarity and validity rather than from a higher familiarity. To explore the extent to which these ratings and justifications translate into learning outcomes, Experiment 2 assessed whether the comprehension elicited by both kinds of analogies surpasses that of a control condition receiving the literal, non-analogical explanations. While interdomain analogies boosted objective comprehension compared to the non-analogical control, intradomain analogies did not. These findings suggest that domain distance constitutes a more broadly applicable criterion than recipient familiarity for selecting instructional analogies, particularly in abstract domains such as psychology, where intradomain base analogs tend to be as abstract as their targets.