Moving Beyond Literal Motions: Transference Effects of Theory of Mind Intervention On Children's Processing of Metaphorical Expressions

Date

2023-8

Author

Öztürk, Fatma Nur

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Despite evidence suggesting a connection between the ability to understand others' mental states and the processing of metaphors, the impact of theory of mind (ToM) training on improving metaphor comprehension remains unexplored in the existing literature. To address this research gap, the current study utilized a randomized controlled design to examine the efficacy of a 6-week ToM intervention in 4- and 5- old Turkish-speaking children’s understanding of metaphorical motion events (N = 44 for experimental group; N = 28 for control group). We evaluated children's metaphor processing abilities using a nonverbal assessment through a gesture-based act-out task and a verbal assessment through an explanation task. In addition to the intervention, we examined the potential effects of various cognitive factors (executive function, receptive and expressive language, ToM) and metaphor-internal linguistic factors (conventionality and conceptual domain) on metaphor processing. A mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that concrete metaphorical domains elicited the literal meaning of the vehicle, implying an indirect processing, whereas abstract domains resulted in a direct metaphorical interpretation. Moreover, ToM and age emerged as the sole significant predictors of children's metaphorical gestures and explanations. This finding was further supported by the outcomes of our ToM training, indicating that the treated children displayed notable improvements not only in ToM skills but also in metaphor processing performance compared to the control group. These results underscore the significance of incorporating ToM interventions as a valuable strategy to enrich children's linguistic and cognitive development in educational settings, particularly in the domain of metaphor comprehension.

Subject Keywords

metaphor processing, theory of mind, intervention studies, direct access model, motion events

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/104889

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis