The role of working memory in the metaphor interference effect

Pierce, Russell S.; MacLaren, Rick; Chiappe, Dan

doi:10.3758/pbr.17.3.400

Cited by 43 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…According to the authors, two types of factors are associated with the ability to comprehend and produce metaphors: information processing factors related to the executive mechanisms of WM, and experiential factors related to crystallized verbal knowledge. Consistently, Pierce et al ( 2010 ) showed that high WM skills are associated with more accurate and faster recognition of the non-literal meaning of metaphorical statements.…”

Section: The Role Of Individual Differences In Figurative Language Prmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Surprisingly enough, this new wave of studies on individual variability has predominantly concerned literal language almost ignoring figurative language, despite its pervasiveness. The few studies on individual differences in figurative language comprehension have predominantly concerned the comprehension and/or production of metaphorical sentences in adults (e.g., Kazmerski et al, 2003 ; Chiappe and Chiappe, 2007 ; Pierce et al, 2010 ) and/or children and adolescents (e.g., Nippold and Martin, 1989 ; Johnson, 1991 ; Nippold et al, 2001 ; Qualls and Harris, 2003 ; Qualls et al, 2003 ; Carriedo et al, 2015 ). Metaphor comprehension requires a high level of intellectual ability, processing capacity and inhibitory control (e.g., Kintsch, 2000 , 2001 ; Kazmerski et al, 2003 ; Carriedo et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: The Role Of Individual Differences In Figurative Language Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive and Personality Components Underlying Spoken Idiom Comprehension in Context. An Exploratory Study

2018

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In this exploratory study, we investigated whether and to what extent individual differences in cognitive and personality variables are associated with spoken idiom comprehension in context. Language unimpaired participants were enrolled in a cross-modal lexical decision study in which semantically ambiguous Italian idioms (i.e., strings with both a literal and an idiomatic interpretation as, for instance, break the ice), predictable or unpredictable before the string offset, were embedded in idiom-biasing contexts. To explore the contributions of different cognitive and personality components, participants also completed a series of tests respectively assessing general speed, inhibitory control, short-term and working memory, cognitive flexibility, crystallized and fluid intelligence, and personality. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that online idiom comprehension was associated with the participants' working memory, inhibitory control and crystallized verbal intelligence, an association modulated by idiom type. Also personality-related variables (State Anxiety and Openness to Experience) were associated with idiom comprehension, although in marginally significant ways. These results contribute to the renewed interest on how individual variability modulates language comprehension, and for the first time document contributions of individual variability on lexicalized, high frequency multi-word expressions as idioms adding new knowledge to the existing evidence on metaphor and sarcasm.

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Section: The Role Of Individual Differences In Figurative Language Prmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: The Role Of Individual Differences In Figurative Language Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and Personality Components Underlying Spoken Idiom Comprehension in Context. An Exploratory Study

2018

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“…Variuje vzhľadom na kognitívne, osobnostné, kultúrne aj sociálne charakteristiky (napr. Kövecses, 2005;Neumann, 2001;Lakoff & Kövecses, 1987;Ansah, 2014, Kazmerski, Blasko, & Dessalegn, 2003Chiappe & Chiappe, 2007;Pierce & MacLaren, 2010;Glucksberg, Gildea, & Bookin, 1982;Colston & Katz, 2004) a metaforický jazyk má tiež špeciálne konzekvencie u prijímateľa správy (Fetterman et al, 2016;Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010;Sopory & Dillard, 2002). Napriek tomu, že vývinu jazyka sa venovalo už veľa priestoru, vývin figuratívneho jazyka, ktorého prototypom je metafora a metonymia, si vyslúžil iba málo pozornosti.…”

Section: Abstract: Metaphor Comprehension Metonymy Comprehension Funclassified

Gender and Developmental Aspects of Metaphor and Metonymy Comprehension Processes

Vernarská

Zelenayová

2018

Psychology and Pathopsychology of Child

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Introduction: The goal of the present study was, in line with theoretical findings, to confirm a shift in metaphor and metonymy comprehension on a sample of Slovak children and to track an effect of a gender as well. Methods: Metaphor and metonymy comprehension were measured with an author constructed tool consisting of eight metaphors and eight metonymies. Respondents were given a multiple choice option to select a correct meaning of metaphor or metonymy. The sample consisted of 120 elementary school children from Košice area. For an age assessment, two age groups were created based on elementary school grades-fourth grade (9-10 years) and eighth grade (13-14 years). Results: Results of our study indicate that both metaphor comprehension and metonymy comprehension shift significantly with age. Eight graders scored significantly better than fourth graders in tasks given. We found statistically significant differences between genders as well. Girls scored significantly higher than boys both in metaphor comprehension and metonymy comprehension. Discussion: Metaphor and metonymy comprehension progress significantly in time, supposedly in line with the development of other cognitive processes. Gender differences can be explained in part by female advantage in verbal processes proclaimed by some research. Limitations: We see limits of our research in capturing a relatively narrow age range. Conclusion: Our study aims to contribute to knowledge about figurative language development since only few researchers have addressed the problem. Perspectives for future research are in exploring given topic on various developmental stages to gain a complex understanding of metaphor and metonymy development in Slovak population and to better explain gender differences.

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“…Second, although previous work has shown that executive control is necessary for resolving lexical ambiguity, to our knowledge no study has investigated how both familiarity and context jointly influence executive control demands during metaphor processing. Finally, past studies have investigated metaphors presented in isolation (e.g., Mashal et al, 2007 ; Mashal and Faust, 2009 ; Goldstein et al, 2012 ; Mashal, 2013 ) or used secondary tasks, which could compromise the naturalness of comprehension (e.g., Kazmerski et al, 2003 ; Pierce et al, 2010 ; Goldstein et al, 2012 ; Lai and Curran, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading

Columbus

Sheikh

Côté-Lecaldare

et al. 2015

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented.

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The role of working memory in the metaphor interference effect

Cited by 43 publications

References 23 publications

Cognitive and Personality Components Underlying Spoken Idiom Comprehension in Context. An Exploratory Study

Cognitive and Personality Components Underlying Spoken Idiom Comprehension in Context. An Exploratory Study

Gender and Developmental Aspects of Metaphor and Metonymy Comprehension Processes

Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading

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