Time Course of Metaphor Comprehension in the Visual World

To investigate the real time processing of metaphoric adjectives, we measured participants looking behavior as they listened to sentences such as The little boy was shocked as a result of the [electrical socket/report card] in the context of a display with four images. Displays included two Unrelated pictures, a Literal picture consistent with the literal interpretation of the adjective (an electrical socket), and a Metaphor picture consistent with the metaphorical interpretation (a report card). Sentences were divided into those with a preferred literal versus metaphorical reading of the adjective based on a norming study involving sentence fragments without the disambiguating information. Although conducted with different participants, those preferences were predictive of looking behavior during the eye tracking study. During the 1s interval before the onset of the disambiguating word, participants were more likely to fixate the image consistent with the preferred interpretation of the adjective than the unrelated pictures. That is, they were more likely to fixate the Literal picture in Literal biased sentences, and the Metaphor picture in Metaphor biased sentences. After the disambiguating information, participants showed an increased probability to fixate the actual target item, regardless of the preferred reading of the adjective. Results argue against models of metaphor comprehension that posit parallel activation of literal and metaphoric meaning.