This paper explores the influence of communicative interaction on the form of graphical representations. A referential communication task is described which involves exclusively graphical dialogue. In this task subjects communicate about pieces of music by drawing. The drawings produced fall into two basic types: Abstract and Figurative. Three hypotheses are developed about the factors influenc...

Russian language acquisition requires deep and intensive studying of the concept of verbs of motion. There is a strong opinion that verbs of motion are one of the hardest concepts in the Russian language. However, it is an important issue, as motion verbs are among the most used in any language and nowadays there are hundreds of expressions with these verbs which can be heard quite frequently i...

This study investigated metaphor comprehension in the broader context of task-difference effects and manipulation of processing difficulty. We predicted that right hemisphere recruitment would show greater specificity to processing difficulty rather than metaphor comprehension. Previous metaphor processing studies have established that the left inferior frontal gyrus strongly correlates with me...

Recent work suggests that concreteness and imageability play an important role in the meanings of figurative expressions. We investigate this idea in several ways. First, we try to define more precisely the context within which a figurative expression may occur, by parsing a corpus annotated for metaphor. Next, we add both concreteness and imageability as “features” to the parsed metaphor corpu...

Previous studies on individuals with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) have pointed to difficulties in comprehension of figurative language. Using the divided visual field paradigm, the present study examined hemispheric processing of idioms and irony in 23 adults with PDD and in 24 typically developing (TD) adults. The results show that adults with PDD were relatively unimpaired in under...

First-order theory of mind (ToM) is necessary for comprehension of metaphors, and second-order ToM is necessary for comprehension of irony. This study investigated the role of ToM and language ability in comprehending figurative language in 50 Taiwanese children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs) compared with 50 typically developing children. Results showed that the No-To...