MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences . An ability to assess similarity lies close to the core of cognition.
Similarity plays an indispensable foundational role in theories of cognition.
People's success in problem solving depends on the similarity of previously solved problems to current problems. Categorization depends on the similarity of objects to be categorized to category members. Memory retrieval depends on the similarity of retrieval cues to stored memories. Inductive reasoning is based on the principle that if an event is similar to a previous event, then similar outcomes are predicted. An understanding of these cognitive processes requires that we understand how humans assess similarity.