Funded by: the European Community, 6th Framework Programme
Partners: New Bulgarian University (coordinator), Cambridge University (UK), University of Heidelberg (Germany), University of London (UK), Université de Bourgogne (France), University College Dublin (Ireland), Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology - CNR - Roma (Italy), University of Athens (Greece), Birkbeck College, University of British Columbia (Canada)
Timeframe: 2006-2010
Description: the project ANALOGY focused on understanding the mechanisms of analogy-making, exploring their evolution and development.
An international research team has compared the performance of non human primates, infants, young children, healthy adults, as well as children and adults with abnormal brain functioning. An interdisciplinary methodology including computational modeling, psychological experimentation, comparative studies, developmental studies and brain imaging has been used to pursue this goal. The ability to make analogies enables humans to engage in complex mental processes such as thinking, categorization and learning. According to some authors, non human animals lack true analogical reasoning. They claim that relational language is necessary for the acquisition of this ability, as suggested by the fact that the first evidence for analogy-making capacity in animals comes from language trained chimpanzees or chimpanzees trained with non-linguistic symbols. However, it is possible that analogy-making did not emerge abruptly in our species or in apes, and that its precursors are present also in monkeys.
Il ragionamento analogico nei cebi
