Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Analogical problem-solving involves transfer of knowledge that has been obtained from a source analog and successfully applying it in the solution of a structurally similar target problem. What is usually found in the so-called hint/no-hint paradigm is that spontaneous solution to a problem is hard to achieve. This leaves the possibility for individual differences. This study searched for and found a positive correlation to exist between scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test and spontaneously solved analogical problems which, although a weak one, possibly accounts for the differences that exist between people who need a hint to solve an analogical problem, and people that do not need a hint.