Results from a narrow set of empirical studies suggest that blind individuals’ comprehension of metaphorical expressions does not differ from that of sighted participants. However, prominent accounts of metaphor comprehension yield different predictions about the blind’s ability to comprehend visual metaphors. While conceptual metaphor theory leads to predicting that blind individuals should lag behind their sighted peers in making sense of this particular kind of utterances, from traditional accounts of analogical reasoning it follows that blind individuals’ ability to comprehend the literal meaning of visual concepts might be sufficient to support their metaphorical application. In Experiment 1, 20 sighted and 20 congenitally blind participants were asked to select the most appropriate meaning for visual, grasping and filler metaphorical expressions. Results failed to reveal group differences for any type of metaphorical expressions. In order to implement a more stringent test of blind individuals’ ability to understand visual metaphors, in Experiment 2 blind and sighted participants were presented with very novel figurative expressions, as indicated by low or no occurrence in the “Google” corpus. In line with the results of Experiment 1, blind participants’ comprehension of visual metaphors was both high in absolute terms and comparable to that of sighted participants. We advance some speculations about the mechanisms by which blind individuals comprehend visual metaphors and we discuss the implications of these results for current theories of metaphor.

La teoría de la metáfora conceptual postula que la interpretación de expresiones metafóricas implica simular mentalmente las experiencias sensoriomotoras base de las metáforas conceptuales de las que derivan. A pesar de que El tiempo es espacio es una de las metáforas conceptuales más estudiadas, la evidencia acerca de su carácter corporeizado es escasa y difícil de interpretar. Se llevó a cabo un experimento para poner a prueba la hipótesis de que interpretar expresiones metafóricas derivadas de la metáfora conceptual Persona en movimiento involucra simular la experiencia de avanzar hacia un objetivo fijo. Mientras que los participantes pertenecientes al grupo experimental leyeron este tipo de expresiones metafóricas después de realizar una actividad sensoriomotora correspondiente al dominio base, los participantes del grupo control leyeron las mismas expresiones después de realizar una actividad física no relacionada. No se encontraron diferencias en los tiempos de lectura de ambas condiciones. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados en el contexto de las investigaciones previas sobre la perspectiva corporeizada acerca de la comprensión de metáforas.

No abstract