Affect in analogical transfer

Abstract

Abstract: The putative importance of analogy in creative insight and intelligence has been repeatedly supported in anecdotal reports of creative scientists and theoretical proposals on creativity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of affect on analogical transfer. For that purpose, three experiments were conducted in which negative, neutral, or positive affect was induced by films. Persons were asked to solve ill‐defined, well‐defined, and insight problems. Analogical reasoning was evoked by base information presented prior to the film and target problem. The first two experiments indicated that positive affect facilitates transfer in ill‐defined problems, but impairs it in well‐defined problems. These findings are discussed in terms of the cognitive strategies used to solve well‐ and ill‐defined problems, and the theoretical assumptions about the impact of positive affect on cognitive organization. The results of the third experiment supported the hypothesis that the influence of positive affect on analogical transfer is related to the form (visual/verbal) of presenting the base analogy.