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Related Experiment Videos

Literal and figurative interpretations are computed in equal time.

B McElree1, J Nordlie

  • 1Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA. bdm@psych.nyu.edu

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 30, 2002
PubMed
Summary

This study found that literal and figurative language processing occur at the same speed. Figurative meanings are less constrained, challenging theories that suggest a sequential interpretation process.

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Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science
  • Language Processing

Background:

  • Understanding figurative language is crucial for effective communication.
  • Previous research has debated whether figurative interpretations follow or occur simultaneously with literal interpretations.
  • The cognitive mechanisms underlying the comprehension of non-literal meanings remain an active area of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the time course of literal versus figurative interpretation.
  • To compare the processing speed of meaningful literal and figurative statements.
  • To examine the relationship between interpretation speed and semantic constraints.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the response signal, speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure to measure interpretation time.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Assessed comprehension speed for literal and figurative word strings.
  • Evaluated processing speed for nonsense versus figurative strings in a truth-judgment task.

    • Main Results:

    • No significant differences in comprehension speed were observed between literal and figurative strings.
    • No differences in processing speed were found for nonsense and figurative strings when judging literal truth.
    • Figurative strings were less frequently judged as meaningful and less likely to be rejected as literally true compared to literal and nonsense strings, respectively.

    Conclusions:

    • The findings suggest that literal and figurative interpretations are computed in parallel, not sequentially.
    • The processing time for figurative and literal meanings is comparable.
    • The meaning of figurative language may be less constrained than literal language, influencing judgment likelihood.