Spontaneous analogising in engineering design: a comparative analysis of experts and novices Linden J. Ball and Thomas C. Ormerod and Nicola J. Morley Psychology Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, UK Although analogical reasoning is claimed to play a central role in creative cognition and the development of expertise, few studies have explored the nature and prevalence of spontaneous analogising in design contexts. We report an experimental comparison of analogy use by expert and novice design engineers. Concurrent think-aloud protocols were analysed to derive measures of the rate of schema-driven analogising (i.e., the recognition- primed application of abstract experiential knowledge that could afford a design solution to a familiar problem type), and case-driven analogising (i.e., the invocation of a concrete prior design problem whose solution elements could be mapped onto the current problem). Results supported our prediction that expert designers would demonstrate more schema-driven than case-driven analogising, whilst novices would show the reverse pattern of analogising. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of design cognition and expert design practice. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: design cognition, engineering design, analogical reasoning, case based reasoning, protocol analysis A nalogical reasoning entails the use of ‘source’ information from a previous problem-solving episode as a means to facilitate attempts at solving a current, ‘target’ problem. Theorists have traditionally viewed analogical reasoning as a core element of intelligent thought, 1,2 and recent evidence suggests that analogising may play a particularly central role in creative problem solving 3 and domain-based skill acquisition. 4,5 In spite of the vital function that is claimed for analogical reasoning in innovative think- ing and the development of expertise, little existing research appears to have given serious attention to the nature, quantity and function of analogising in design contexts. This is, perhaps, more than a little 1 Raven, J C Progressive matrices: a perceptual test of intelligence H K Lewis & Co Ltd, London, UK (1938) 2 Sternberg, R J C ‘Compo- nent processes in analogical reasoning’ Psychological Review Vol 84 (1977) 353–378 3 Holyoak, K J and Thagard, P ‘Mental leaps: analogy in cre- ative thought’ MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA (1995) 4 Anderson, J R ‘The analogi- cal origins of errors in problem solving’ in D Klahr and K Kotovsky (eds) Complex infor- mation processing: the impact of Herbert A. Simon, LEA, Hillsdale, NJ, USA (1989) pp 343–371 5 Schank, R C Dynamic mem- ory revisited Cambridge Univer- sity Press, Cambridge, UK (1999) www.elsevier.com/locate/destud 0142-694X/$ - see front matter Design Studies 25 (2004) 495–508 doi:10.1016/j.destud.2004.05.004 495 # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain