Most engineers spend a lot of time thinking about how to solve design problems. However, most of us don't spend very much time thinking about how we think. Fortunately, two cognitive psychologists at the University of Pittsburgh have done just that. Joel Chan and Christian Shunn are the authors of a recent paper in the journal Cognitive Science focusing on how engineers use analogies to develop innovative concepts.
Their paper is based on observations of real-world engineers "in the wild," as they put it. (In this case, "in the wild" means in a conference room, not a tropical rainforest.) Analogies are comparisons between two things that shed light on their similarities. Engineers sometimes make analogies between thermal systems and electrical circuits. For instance, when it comes to the flow of heat through systems, thermal resistance and thermal capacitance (heat capacity) follow essentially the same rules.