Design is hard and needs to be supported by software. One of the ways software can support designers is by providing analogical reasoning. To make analogical reasoning work well, the software makers need to know how to create a knowledge representation that will facilitate the kind of analogies that the designers want. This thesis will inform software makers by experimenting with two kinds of knowledge representations, called device-centric (DC) and environment-centric (EC), and to try to determine the relative benefits of using either one of them for analogical matching. We performed computational experiments, using Structure Mapping Engine for matching, to determine the quantity and quality of analogical matches that are produced when the representation is varied. We conducted a limited human experiment, using questionnaires and repertory grids, to determine if any of the computational results were novel, and to determine if the human similarity ratings between devices correlated with the computer results. We show that design software should use DC representations to produce a few focused matches which have high average weight. It should use EC representations to produce many matches some of high weight and some of low weight. Based on our human experiment, design software can use either DC or EC representations to produce novel matches. Our experiments also show that human matches correlate most strongly with a combined DC and EC representation and that their similarity reasons are more EC than DC. This suggests that designers tend to think more in EC terms than in DC terms.

This exploratory case study was undertaken to obtain a greater understanding of the difficulties that physics students face when solving image-object projections in optics problems. This was carried out by studying the students’ reasoning when facing new kinds of problem settings using the refraction of light and the position of the virtual image and the real object as the frame for the research. The results show that there is more than one reasoning possibility that is feasible for students to use when dealing with the same problem. The results also illustrate how several different ways of reasoning may be simultaneously needed to solve a refraction problem. The different kinds of reasoning have been referred to as reasoning categories in this study. The analysis illustrates how the categories complement each other, and the use of many reasoning categories is shown to be fruitful. However, the vast majority of the participants made contradicting answer selections when solving similar problems by using contradicting reasoning approaches. This lack of consistency in the participants’ reasoning could indicate that they have a fragmentary understanding of optics in general. Both the capability to link reasoning approaches together, as well as the affordances that different modes of representations offer, are needed for the construction of a better conceptual understanding. Only mastering a few ways of reasoning and a few modes of representation could lead to fragmented knowledge, which, in turn leads to making problem solving really challenging. One purpose of this study was to find out if reasoning categories and modes of representations are essentially linked. If so, then the reasoning categories would be determined by the representation of the problem. The analysis shows that there is a connection, but that there are also other factors at play.

Le présent manuscrit développe une problématique liée à l’implication des capacités de gestion de buts et d’engagement des fonctions exécutives dans le raisonnement par analogie et son développement. Les trois premières expériences étudient cette problématique dans deux tâches de raisonnement par analogie différentes à travers l’étude des stratégies visuelles employées par des adultes et des enfants de 6-7 ans. Les résultats montrent des différences de stratégies visuelles entre les tâches, liées aux buts différents de celles-ci, ainsi que, entre enfants et adultes, des différences de patterns visuels liés à l’inhibition de l'information non pertinente pour la résolution des problèmes. Les deux expériences suivantes étudient les stratégies visuelles, toujours en lien avec le fonctionnement exécutif et le maintien du but, dans une tâche A:B::C:? dont la difficulté est manipulée afin de mettre en évidence des différences d’engagement de processus de contrôle et d’évaluation. Les résultats montrent un effet de la difficulté des essais, ainsi que du type de distracteur, dans les stratégies visuelles. Enfin les trois dernières expériences étudient l’implication de la flexibilité cognitive, une des fonctions exécutives, dans le raisonnement par analogie, chez l’enfant (5-6 ans), limité dans sa flexibilité. Les résultats montrent que l’ancrage dans un type de représentation, pertinent ou non pour la solution du problème, est lié à leur capacité à résoudre le problème, et suggèrent une difficulté à changer de représentation au cours de la résolution. Ces résultats sont finalement discutés en rapport aux modèles de raisonnement par analogie et de développement de cette capacité. / This manuscript develops an issue related to the involvement of goal management capabilities and executive functions in this type of reasoning and its development. The first three experiments examine this issue in two tasks of analogical reasoning, the scene analogy task and the A:B::C:? task, through the study of visual strategies used by adults, and children aged 6-to-7. The results show differences in visual patterns related to goals, and to the inhibition of irrelevant information for the solution of the problems, between the different tasks, and between children and adults. The following two experiments study the visual strategies, always in relation to executive functioning and goal management, in an A:B::C:? task whose difficulty is manipulated to highlight the difference in involvement of monitoring and evaluation processes. The results do show an effect of the difficulty of the test and the type of distractor in the visual strategies employed. Finally, the last three experiments investigate the involvement of cognitive flexibility, one of the executive functions, in the analogical reasoning of preschool children (5-6-year-olds), limited in their flexibility. The results show that their early anchoring in a type of representation, relevant or not to the solution of the problem, is related to their ability to solve the problem later, and thus suggest a difficulty in shifting their representation during the resolution of the problems. These results are finally discussed in relation to models of analogical reasoning and of the development of this ability, especially those integrating goal management and executive functions.

Following established traditions in anthropology and sociology, where cross-border research helps to identify important themes which benefit from comparative study, this dissertation introduces cross-sector policy research as a new methodology for generating useful insights about public policy. The cross-sector method is applied to the study of the UK energy and transport sectors. A range of generic policy developments in the energy sector are identified including: the development of efficiency indicators, scenario analysis, and the establishment of energy efficiency programmes. Such developments have not, as yet, occurred in the transport sector. A structural analogy between energy and transport is developed which is used to generate a range of innovations for transport policy including: gross mass movements and intensities as indicators of the efficiency with which the economy uses transport; the projection of a quantitative scenario of sustainable mobility; and the outline of a transport efficiency programme. The insights from the analogy are generalised to consider the benefits of a wider application of cross-sector policy research to other policy areas.

Many people face difficulties in remembering knowledge, which is complex and abstract. This is especially important when the descriptions of knowledge are to be stored in searchable knowledge bases. But if complex knowledge can be transferred through real life stories, it is more understandable and easier to retrieve for the knowledge acceptor. Moreover, if the stories follow a certain pattern like ‘intentional suspense’ it may be more useful. This study investigates how far a story with intentional interruption is helpful in transferring complex computer science knowledge through processing of information that compares similarities between new and well-understood concepts. The data collection was done by applying framework analysis approach through the interview of 40 students of Stockholm University. Results of this study is assumed to help organizations to design, store and retrieve complex knowledge structures in knowledge bases by using a specific pattern of the stories used in the narrative pedagogy known as 'Zeigarnik effect' which is a form of creating suspense. Interviews with managers showed that they are positive to using the type of knowledge transfer as is proposed in the results of this thesis. Transcribed interviews with students show that the students appreciate and understand the use of analogies in combination with the ‘Zeigarnik effect’ as is described in the result of this thesis. After analysis of the data collected from the experiments, it was confirmed that ‘Zeigarnik effect’ has a small positive effect for a group of people as better results have been found in most of the time when ‘Zeigarnik effect’ was used as compared to when the ‘Zeigarnik effect’ was not used. The participants that experienced the ‘Zeigarnik effect’ answered in a better way which proved that their understanding and memory regarding the subject have been enhanced using it.

Zeit ist ein fundamentaler Aspekt menschlichen Verhaltens. Während Untersuchungen bislang meist nur auf einem der drei Hauptaspekte der Zeit: Dauer, Zeitfolge und individuelle zeitliche Orientierung fokussierten, untersucht diese Dissertation Zusammenhänge zwischen der individuellen zeitlichen Orientierung und der Zeitfolge. Zeit ist nicht direkt wahrnehmbar, sondern an kognitive Abstraktionsprozesse gebunden. Diese benötigen kognitive Ressourcen und werden kognitiven Fähigkeiten beeinflusst. Daher wurden Zusammenhänge zwischen individueller zeitlicher Orientierung und allgemeinen kognitiven Fähigkeiten ebenfalls untersucht. Studie 1 analysiert, wie verschiedene Aspekte individueller zeitlicher Orientierung korreliert sind, und diese Korrelationen von Alter und Geschlecht beeinflusst sind. Studien 2 und 3a analysieren Zusammenhänge zwischen individueller zeitlicher Orientierung und der Zeitfolge. Studie 3b untersucht mittels einer geometrischen Analogieanforderung Korrelationen zwischen individueller zeitlicher Orientierung und höheren fluiden Intelligenzleistungen. Befunde zu Zeitperspektive-Chronotyp- Relationen sowie Zeithorizont-Chronotyp-Relationen werden berichtet, ebenso Zusammenhänge zwischen Zeitperspektive, Zeithorizont und der Zeitfolge. Ausgehend von diesen und früheren Befunden wird ein kognitives Modell vorgestellt, welches alle drei Aspekte psychologischer Zeit (Zeitdauer; Zeitfolge; individuelle zeitliche Orientierung) integriert. Ferner werden als Ergebnis der Studien Zusammenhänge zwischen der Zukunftsperspektive und fluider Intelligenz sowie Chronotyp und verbaler Intelligenz berichtet. Verhaltensdaten und psychophysiologische Daten (Pupillendilation) zeigen ferner Zusammenhänge zwischen individueller zeitlicher Orientierung, analogem Denken, exekutiven Funktionen und Konfliktverarbeitung. So scheinen Zukunftsperspektive und Morgentyp eng mit Konfliktverarbeitung verbunden, der Zeithorizont hingegen eng mit inhibierenden Kontrollprozessen. / Time is a fundamental aspect of human experience. Whilst most research investigated major aspects of psychological time - time duration, time succession, individual temporal orientation - in isolation, this dissertation investigates interrelations between individual temporal orientation and time succession. Since psychological time is bound to cognitive abstraction processes that rely on cognitive resources and functions, interrelations between individual temporal orientation and cognitive capacities were also investigated. Study 1 explored how different levels of individuals’ temporal orientation may be interrelated, and how interrelations may be influenced by age and sex. Interrelations between individual temporal orientation and time succession were explored in a task predominantly requiring crystallized intelligence (Study 2) and in a semantic analogy task requiring crystallized and fluid intelligence (Study 3a). Study 3b investigated interrelations between individual temporal orientation and higher-level fluid intelligence measures by applying a geometric analogy task. Interrelations between time perspective and chronotype as well as between chronotype and temporal depth are reported. Further, both future time perspective and temporal depth are interrelated with time succession. A testable global working memory model of time perception integrating all three aspects of psychological time is proposed. Further, interrelations between individual temporal orientation and cognitive capacities are reported. Future time perspective was related to fluid intelligence, chronotype to verbal intelligence. Behavioral as well as pupillary data suggest that individual temporal orientation is related to analogical reasoning, executive functions and goal management. Whereas future time perspective and morningness appear interrelated with conflict detection, temporal depth appears interrelated with inhibitory control.

[pt] A presente tese é primordialmente um trabalho de teoria do direito cujo objeto de pesquisa é a relação entre duas estratégias que o jurista pode utilizar para solucionar problemas de ausência e/ou insuficiência normativa: a analogia e a interpretação extensiva. A doutrina brasileira é unânime ao compreender que, apesar da proximidade, a analogia e a interpretação extensiva são estratégias distintas. O objetivo da presente tese é questionar essa unanimidade; para tanto, busca aprofundar o estudo dessas estratégias e investigar a relação existente entre elas. Apesar da diferença conceitual existente e da distinção presente no âmbito do direito penal – que admite a utilização da interpretação extensiva, mas não a analogia (exceto para benefício do réu) –, a linha limítrofe que demarca o âmbito de aplicação de ambas é fluída e de aplicação prática. Os estudos sobre essas estratégias acabam priorizando as diferenças, negligenciando a proximidade existente entre elas. A hipótese da tese: a chave para a compreensão da relação entre analogia e interpretação extensiva reside naquilo que elas têm em comum. Essa proximidade é evidenciada com o apoio das recentes descobertas no campo das ciências cognitivas, em especial nos estudos sobre o raciocínio analógico. / [en] The presente thesis is primarily a work of jurisprudence whose object of research is the relationship between two strategies that the lawyer can use to solve problem of regulatory absence and/or insufficiency: analogy and extensive interpretation. Brazilian doctrine is unanimous in understanding that, despite the proximity, analogy and extensive interpretation are distinct strategies. The purpose of this thesis is to question this unanimity; therefore, it seeks to deepen the study of these strategies and investigate the relationship between them. Despite the existing conceptual difference and the distinction presente in the scope of criminal law – which admits the use of extensive interpretation, but not the analogy (except fot the benefit of the defendant) –, the boundary line that marks the scope of both is fluid and whit difficult practical application. Studies on these strategies end up prioritizing differences, neglecting the existing proximity between them. The thesis hypothesis: the key to understanding the relationship betweem analogy and extensive interpretation lies in what they have in common. This proximity is evidenced with the support of recente discoveries in the field of cognitive sciences, especially in studies on analogical reasoning.

Hitherto, previous studies on the cerebral correlates of fluid intelligence (fluIQ) used tasks that did not exclusively demand fluIQ, or were restricted to participants of average fluIQ (ave-fluIQ) solving intelligence test items of varying difficulty, thus not allowing assumptions on interindividual differences in fluIQ. Geometric analogical reasoning (GAR) demands fluIQ very purely and thus is an eligible approach for research on interindividual differences in fluIQ. In a first study, we examined the cerebral correlates of GAR, and showed the involvement of parietal and frontal brain regions. This is in line with the assumptions of the parieto-frontal integration theory (P-FIT) of intelligence and with literature reports for other visuo-spatial tasks. Building upon these findings, we report results from a second study with high fluIQ (hi-fluIQ) and ave-fluIQ school students solving a GAR task. Again in line with the P-FIT model, we demonstrated that the parieto-frontal network is involved in GAR in both groups. However, the extent of task-related brain activation in parietal and frontal brain regions was differentially modulated by fluIQ. Our results thus partly run counter to the postulates of the neural efficiency hypothesis, which assumes a negative brain activation-intelligence relationship. We conclude that this relationship is not generally unitary; rather, it can be conjectured that the adaptive and flexible modulation of brain activation is characteristic of hi-fluIQ. Knowledge on the stability of the cerebral correlates of hi-fluIQ during adolescence had been sparse. To elucidate this field, we examined the follow-up stability of the cerebral correlates of GAR in hi-fluIQ in a third study. We demonstrated that the relevant brain network is in place already at age 17 and that improvements in behavioral performance at age 18 due to task familiarity are indicative of more efficient use of the cerebral resources available. / Bisherige Studien zu zerebralen Korrelaten fluider Intelligenz (fluIQ) haben Aufgaben verwendet, die fluIQ nicht in Reinform erfordern oder haben Probanden mit durchschnittlicher fluIQ (ave-fluIQ) beim Lösen von Intelligenztestaufgaben mit variierenden Schwierigkeitsstufen untersucht und ermöglichen daher keine Aussagen zu interindividuellen Unterschieden in fluIQ. Geometrisches analoges Schließen (GA) beansprucht fluIQ in Reinform und eignet sich daher als differentielles Untersuchungsparadigma. In einer ersten Studie haben wir die zerebralen Korrelate des GA untersucht und nachgewiesen, dass parietale und frontale Hirnregionen involviert sind. Dies steht im Einklang mit der parieto-frontalen Integrationstheorie (P-FIT) der Intelligenz und mit Literaturberichten zu anderen visuell-räumlichen Aufgaben. Aufbauend auf diesen Befunden berichten wir Ergebnisse einer zweiten Studie, in der Schüler mit hoher fluIQ (hi-fluIQ) und ave-fluIQ GA-Aufgaben lösten. In Übereinstimmung mit den Annahmen des P-FIT-Modells konnten wir zeigen, dass GA in beiden Gruppen das parieto-frontale Netzwerk beansprucht. Das Ausmaß der Hirnaktivierung wurde jedoch differentiell durch fluIQ moduliert. Unsere Ergebnisse widersprechen damit teilweise den Postulaten der neuralen Effizienztheorie, die einen negativen Zusammenhang zwischen Hirnaktivierung und Intelligenz annimmt. Wir schlussfolgern, dass dieser Zusammenhang nicht generell einseitig gerichtet ist, sondern die flexible Modulation von Hirnaktivierung charakteristisch für hi-fluIQ ist. Befunde zur Stabilität zerebraler Korrelate von hi-fluIQ in der Jugend waren bisher rar. Um dieses Feld zu beleuchten, haben wir die follow-up-Stabilität zerebraler Korrelate des GA in der hi-fluIQ Gruppe in einer dritten Studie untersucht. Wir konnten zeigen, dass das relevante zerebrale Netzwerk schon mit 17 Jahren etabliert ist und Performanzverbesserungen über die Zeit für eine effizientere Nutzung der verfügbaren zerebralen Ressourcen sprechen.

Grâce aux progrès de la génétique moléculaire qui ont permis d’identifier de nouveaux gènes de déficience intellectuelle liée à l’X, il nous a été possible de travailler sur des groupes homogènes de malades présentant une mutation dans le même gène. Nous avons d’une part, pu mettre en évidence un dysfonctionnement du circuit cérébello-thalamo-préfrontal grâce à une étude en IRM morphométrique réalisée chez des patients ayant une mutation dans le gène Rab-GDI. D’autre part, nous avons identifié un phénotype tout à fait spécifique lié aux mutations du gène ARX, tant clinique que neuropsychologique, et cinématique, associant une atteinte très particulière de la motricité distale des membres supérieurs et du langage. La préhension des patients est pathognomonique, avec une préférence pour la pince pouce-majeur, une difficulté accrue pour l’utilisation du bord cubital de la main, et un trouble de la pronosupination. Sur le plan neuroanatomique, il existe une diminution de volume des noyaux gris centraux et des épaisseurs corticales des régions contrôlant la motricité, bien corrélées au paramètres de cinématique. Enfin, nous avons exploré les stratégies de raisonnement des patients déficients intellectuels atteints du syndrome de l’X fragile, d’une mutation du gène ARX ou de trisomie 21 en élaborant un paradigme de raisonnement visuel analogique issu des matrices de Raven. Nous en avons établi la trajectoire développementale. Les stratégies utilisées par les patients (étude en eyetracking) sont différentes de celles des contrôles y compris de même âge mental, avec un défaut d’inhibition majeur, encore plus franc chez les patients X fragiles que ceux porteurs de trisomie 21 / Thanks to progress in molecular genetics, that allowed identification of new genes responsible for X linked intellectual disability, we studied on homogeneous groups of patients presenting with a mutation in one or the other gene. In the first section, we showed dysfunction of cerebello-thalamo-prefrontal networks, thanks to morphological MRI study performed on patients with a mutation in the Rab-GDI gene. In the second section, we highlighted a very specific phenotype related to ARX gene mutations, clinically, neuropsychologically, and kinematically, with a very peculiar impairment of upper limbs distal motricity, and language disorder. Patients hand-grip is pathognomonic, with a preference for the middle finger instead of the index for the grip of object, major impairment of fourth finger use, and lack of pronation movements. Neuroimaging study showed decreased volume of basal ganglia, and cortical thickness of motor regions, well correlated to kinematic parameters. In the third section, we explored reasoning strategies in three groups of patients with intellectual deficiency: fragile X, ARX mutated and Down syndrome patients and controls (both chronological and mental age-matched subjects). We notably elaborated a visual analogical reasoning paradigm, inspired from Raven’s matrices. We established a developmental trajectory of this paradigm. The strategy used by patients (eyetracking study) was different from the one used by controls, with a huge lack of inhibition, even greater for fragile X patients than for Down syndrome patients

Text in English and Arabic / In pre-colonial Africa, the Southwestern Sahara which includes Mauritania, Mali and Senegal belonged to what was then referred to as the Sudan and extended from the Atlantic seaboard to the Red Sea. The advent of Islam and the Arabic language to West Africa in the 11th century heralded an intellectual marathon whose literary output still fascinates us today. At a time when Europe was emerging from the dark ages and Africa was for most Europeans a terra incognita, indigenous African scholars were composing treatises as diverse as mathematics, agriculture and the Islamic sciences. A twentieth century Mauritanian, Arabic monograph, Irshād al- Muqallidīn ʿinda ikhtilāf al-Mujtahidīn1, written circa 1910/1332, by a yet unknown Mauritanian jurist of the Mālikī School, Bāba bin al-Shaykh Sīdī al- Shinqīṭī al-Ntishā-ī (d.1920/1342), a member of the muchacclaimed Shinqīṭī fraternity of scholars, is a fine example of African literary accomplishment. This manuscript hereinafter referred to as the Irshād, is written within the legal framework of Islamic jurisprudence (usūl al-fiqh). A science that relies for the most part on the intellectual and interpretive competence of the independent jurist, or mujtahid, in the application of the methodologies employed in the extraction of legal norms from the primary sources of the sharīʿah. The subject matter of the Irshād deals with the question of juristic differences. Juristic differences invariably arise when a mujtahid exercises his academic freedom to clarify or resolve conundrums in the law and to postulate legal norms. Other independent jurists (mujtahidūn) may posit different legal norms because of the exercise of their individual interpretive skills. These differences, when they are deemed juristically irreconcilable, are called ikhtilāfāt (pl. of ikhtilāf). The author of the Irshād explores a corollary of the ikhtilāf narrative and posits the hypothesis that there ought not to be ikhtilāf in the sharīʿah. The proposed research will comprise an annotated translation of the monograph followed by a synopsis and commentary on its dominant themes. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)