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From: august@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Stephanie August)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: A reference on use of alternative metaphors/analogies
Keywords: analogy, metaphor, knowledge acquisition, learning
Message-ID: <17534@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 3 Nov 88 21:16:01 GMT
References: <488@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: august@cs.ucla.edu (Stephanie August)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 33

In article <488@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> sme@doc.ic.ac.uk (Steve M Easterbrook) 
writes:
    >Hi. I am trying to recall the reference to a paper I read a while ago
    >which discussed the use of analogies in learning. In particular this
    >paper showed how different metaphors can be used to illustrate different
    >features of the same concept. I think the example used was that of the
    >behaviour of gas molecules, using such metaphors as crowded rooms, etc
    >to help understand such concepts as pressure. 

The article you want is 

    Gentner, Dedre, and Gentner, Donald R.  (1983)
	Flowing Waters or Teeming Crowds: Mental Models of 
	Electricity.  In Dedre Gentner and Albert L. Stevens (Eds.), 
	_Mental Models_.  Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p.99

    >Or it might have been the
    >one which used an example of explaining how a variable works by
    >comparing it to a box, amongst other things. 

You might also be thinking of the programming examples in papers
on the GRAPES simulation of John Anderson's ACT theory of learning.  See:

    Anderson, John R. (1986)
	Knowledge compilation: the general learning mechanism.
	In R.S. Michalski, J.G. Carbonell, and T.M. Mitchell (Eds.),
	_Machine Learning: An Artificial Intelligence Approach_, 
	Kaufmann, Los Altos CA.
    Anderson, John R., Farrell, Robert, and Sauers, Ron.  (1984)
 	Learning to Program in LISP.  _Cognitive Science_, 8, 87-129.

					-- Stephanie E. August
					Computer Science Dept, UCLA
					<august@cs.ucla.edu>