Transfer Learning and Analogical Inference: A Critical Comparison of Algorithms, Methods, and Applications

Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) research has aimed to achieve human-level performance in tasks that require understanding and decision making. Although major advances have been made, AI systems still struggle to achieve adaptive learning for generalization. One of the main approaches to generalization in ML is transfer learning, where previously learned knowledge is utilized to solve problems in a different, but related, domain. Another approach, pursued by cognitive scientists for several decades, has investigated the role of analogical reasoning in comparisons aimed at understanding human generalization ability. Analogical reasoning has yielded rich empirical findings and general theoretical principles underlying human analogical inference and generalization across distinctively different domains. Though seemingly similar, there are fundamental differences between the two approaches. To clarify differences and similarities, we review transfer learning algorithms, methods, and applications in comparison with work based on analogical inference. Transfer learning focuses on exploring feature spaces shared across domains through data vectorization while analogical inferences focus on identifying relational structure shared across domains via comparisons. Rather than treating these two learning approaches as synonymous or as independent and mutually irrelevant fields, a better understanding of how they are interconnected can guide a multidisciplinary synthesis of the two approaches.