According to structure-mapping theory, the process of comparison is on
e of alignment and mapping between representational structures. This p
rocess induces a focus on commonalities and alignable differences (i.e
., those related to the commonalities). Non-alignable differences (i.e
., those nor related to the commonalities) are held to be neglected. T
he theory thus predicts increased focus on rite corresponding informat
ion, whether these are commonalities or differences. In this article,
we explore the implications of this claim for memory: Specifically, we
test the prediction that alignable differences are more likely to be
processed and stored than nonalignable differences. We present a study
in which people made similarity comparisons between pairs of pictures
and then were probed for recall. The recall probes were figures taken
from the pictures and were either alignable or nonalignable differenc
es between the pairs. The alignable differences were better memory pro
bes than the nonalignable differences, suggesting that people were mor
e likely to encode and store the corresponding information than the no
ncorresponding information.