Effects of Three Levels of Context on Children's Metaphor Comprehension

The effects of three levels of context on children's metaphor comprehension were tested within a developmental stage framework. Specifically, 6- to-12-year-olds' comprehension of easy, moderately difficult, and difficult metaphors presented with no context, a short context, or a long context was compared. The results support an Age × Metaphor Difficulty interaction and an Age × Metaphor Difficulty Context interaction: longer contexts enabled some subjects to generate more elaborate interpretations and facilitated comprehension of more difficult metaphors. The results are discussed in terms of specific words in context, the saliency of the metaphorical grounds, the relationship between metaphor difficulty and the type of comprehension category constructed, and within and between age-group differences.