Abstract

Are we any closer to creating an autonomous model of analogical reasoning that can generate new and creative analogical comparisons? A three-phase model of analogical reasoning is presented that encompasses the phases of retrieval, mapping and inference validation. The model of the retrieval phase maximizes its creativity by focusing on domain topology, combating the semantic locality suffered by other models. The mapping model builds on a standard model of the mapping phase, again making use of domain topology. A novel validation model helps ensure the quality of the inferences that are accepted by the model. We evaluated the ability of our tri-phase model to re-discover several h-creative analogies (Boden, 1992) from a background memory containing many potential source domains. The model successfully re-discovered all creative comparisons, even when given problem descriptions that more accurately reflect the original problem – rather than the standard (post hoc) representation of the analogy. Finally, some remaining challenges for a truly autonomous creative analogy machine are assessed.