Do You Have a "Strict Purse"? The Routes to Meaning in Metaphor

Theoretically there are two processing systems through which meaning can be found for a given statement: an effortless, associative processing system (meaning retrieval), or an effortful, analytical processing system (meaning construction). The current study investigated whether or not the context in which target (loosely figurative) word-pairs are presented can influence whether a person relies on associative or analytical processing to find their meaning. Participants were presented with target (loosely figurative) novel word-pairs and asked to judge them for meaningfulness. These target novel word-pairs were presented in different contexts: either mixed with clearly meaningful word-pairs or with additional novel word-pairs. By nature, meaning cannot be retrieved for novel word-pairs, so if a novel word-pair is to be found "meaningful," then its meaning must usually be constructed online (via the analytical processing system). Consistent with increased reliance on analytical processing, participants who saw target novel word-pairs mixed with additional novel word-pairs judged them meaningful more often than did participants who saw them mixed with clearly meaningful word-pairs. Participants who saw target novel word-pairs mixed with additional novel word-pairs also had more negative N400s to target novel word-pairs, indicating that they committed more semantic effort to the processing of these (again consistent with analytical processing). Associative processing does not involve attempts to construct new meaning for given word-pairs. Consistent with increased reliance on associative processing, participants who saw target novel word-pairs mixed with clearly meaningful word-pairs judged them meaningful less often than did participants who saw them mixed with additional novel word-pairs. These participants also had less negative N400s to target novel word-pairs, indicating that they committed less semantic effort to the processing of these (again fitting with associative processing). Further evidence for different contexts leading to differential processing of the same target novel word-pairs was provided by examination of wave morphology. Two distinctive patterns of neural activation were found in response to the same target novel word-pairs, differing depending on the context in which these appeared. Overall, the results of the current study were consistent with the hypothesis that context can influence which processing system is relied upon to find meaning for a given statement. This finding challenges contemporary models of meaning construction and metaphor comprehension by showing that context is essential to these processes and needs to be taken into consideration.