The structure-mapping engine: Algorithm and examples (Q1823718)

The paper deals with computational aspects of Gentner's structure-mapping theory of analogical processing. The authors concentrate themselves on the mapping process in analogy, leaving the access and application aspects to other works. After short introduction they review Gentner's structure-mapping theory together with some psychological evidence for it. Then the structure-mapping engine (SME) is described and the complexity of every step of its algorithm is analyzed. Even if worst-case complexity is not polynomial, the authors suspect the worst-case behavior is very unlikely to occur. Few representative examples are given to demonstrate SME's flexibility and generality. Finally the authors discuss some broader implications of the project and sketch their plans for future work.