Executive Control in Analogical Reasoning: Beyond Interference Resolution

In recent studies, analogy-making has been shown to depend on the ability to resist interference. In our large-sample correlational study we found that efficiency of analogical reasoning is strongly related to measures of diverse executive control functions, far beyond interference resolution. These functions included interference resolution itself, but also: goal activation and application, inhibition of response tendency, and controlled visual search. The results implicate that executive control is an important factor for efficiency of analogical (and probably for most of types of relational) reasoning and that accounting for inter-individual differences in control and reasoning may be important for assessing the psychological plausibility of computational models of analogy-making.