Visual and verbal metaphors: developmental interactions.
This study investigated developmental changes in children's abilities to comprehend visual metaphors as measured by their use of verbal metaphor. The visual metaphors were compound objects, e.g., a top with features of a ballerina (head and skirt). 30 participants at each of 4 ages--5, 7, 10, and adult--described objects ordered in pairs; half described standard objects and the other half corresponding compound objects (half stationary, and half moving, e.g., spinning). Total metaphoric descriptions reached the adult frequency by age 7 for compound objects, but increased from 5 to 10 to adult for standard objects. For all but the youngest children, moving objects were more likely to be described using action vehicles. These results indicate that from 5 to 7 children improve in the ability to understand visual metaphors, which display topic-vehicle interaction; from 5 through 10 to adulthood they improve in the ability to comprehend metaphoric similarity.
Dent
C
C
Psychology Department, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056.
Rosenberg
L
L
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011936:Reality Testing; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior