NIAS Lorentz Theme Group explores the ABCs of analogy

How does analogical reasoning emerge in humans — and can it be replicated in machines? That is the central question driving NIAS’s newest Theme Group, Abstraction, Broad Generalisation, and Composition: The ABCs of Analogy, part of the 2026/27 year group.

Using computational models and large language models as experimental testbeds, the group examines analogical reasoning through three lenses: abstraction, generalisation, and composition. Their work aims to shed new light on how this fundamental cognitive capacity develops in children, how language shapes it, and what human reasoning can teach us about AI — and vice versa.

The group brings together Lucia Donatelli (linguistics, coordinator), Martha Lewis (computer science / neurosymbolic AI), and Claire Stevenson (psychology), combining three disciplines that each capture a different dimension of how analogy works in minds and machines.