General learning processes have been in disfavor as explanations of human learning and development, but this is because the wrong processes are being considered.
Analogy is a general learning process by which abstract knowledge can arise from experience.
I'll describe studies of learning in adults and children that show that comparison can promote theory-like insight. I will also show evidence that the acquisition and use of relational language fosters the ability to carry out analogies. Our learning abilities may arise in part from mutual bootstrapping between language and cognition.