Teaching Financial Accounting with Analogies: Improving Initial Comprehension and Enhancing Subsequent Learning

We conducted two laboratory experiments to determine whether using an analogy to introduce an accounting topic affects students' ability to initially comprehend that topic and subsequently learn the topic in greater depth. Results of the first study indicate that an analogy can improve initial comprehension, but only if students are encouraged to think thoroughly about both the “source” topic on which the analogy is based and the “target” topic that they are to learn. Results of the second study indicate that using an analogy to introduce a topic can enhance learning two weeks later when students study the topic in greater depth.