We explored the development of the analogical reasoning. The traditional conception of this development is that it is dependent of knowledge accretion in children (Gentner, 1983, 1988; Goswami & Brown, 1989, 1990). We used a different approach which explains it as dependent of the development of the executive functions, particularly of the component of inhibition. The capacity of inhibition allows the suppression of the salient but irrelevant information for analogy-making in children. It is required while searching for the analogical solution. Nine studies involving a classical analogy-making task A : B :: C : ? were performed in this dissertation. The role of the capacity of inhibition was tested using perceptual or semantic distractors conflicting with the analogical solution. The distractors must be inhibited while searching for the analogical solution. Results show that all salient but irrelevant information for analogy-making interferes with the discovery or the construction of the analogical solution. Therefore, children’s performances of the analogy-making task depend on the degree of development of their executive functions. These results are consistent with the results of Richland, Morrison & Holyoak (2006) explaining children’s performances on an analogy-making task by the limitations of their executive functioning.
