Visuospatial Re-Representation in Analogical Reasoning

Visual and spatial representations seem to play a significant role in analogy. In this paper, we describe a specific role of visual representations: two situations that appear dissimilar non-visuospatially may appear similar when rerepresented visuospatially. We present a computational theory of analogy in which visuospatial re-representation enables analogical transfer in cases where there are ontological mismatches in the non-visuospatial representation. Realizing this theory in a computational model with specific data structures and algorithms first requires a computational model of visuospatial analogy, i.e., a model of analogy that only uses visuospatial knowledge. We have developed a computer program, called Galatea, which implements a core part of this model: it transfers problem-solving procedures between analogs that contain only visual and spatial knowledge. In this paper, we describe both how Galatea accomplishes analogical transfer using only visuospatial knowledge, and how it might be extended to support visuospatial re-representation of situations represented non-visually.