THE EFFECT OF INHIBITORY CONTROL, WORKING MEMORY AND DOMAIN ON THE PROCESSING OF METAPHORS IN CHILDREN: A GESTURE-BASED STUDY WITH TURKISH SPEAKING PRESCHOOLERS

Date

2023-8

Author

Bayramoğlu, Meryem Ezgi

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The debate on how metaphors are processed has been a long-standing question, traditionally, divided into two opposing views: the indirect-access model and the direct-access model. Additionally, studies have shown that conventionality as well as inhibitory control (IC) and working memory (WM) play a crucial role in metaphor processing. To date, no studies have investigated the effect of IC and WM on the processing of metaphors in children. In light of these findings, we investigated how novel and conventional metaphorical motion events (MMEs) in two different domains (emotion and body) are processed by Turkish children (MAge= 4,03; N = 20), and the effect of IC and WM on this process. In that regard, children were assessed through non-verbal gesture-based act-out task and verbal metaphor comprehension tasks. Children's responses were coded as metaphorical, literal, or null/wrong responses in both tasks. IC and WM were also assessed. A multinominal logistic regression was used to assess the effect of IC, WM, conventionality, and domain on the processing of MMEs. The results revealed that the better the IC, the higher the probability of children using metaphorical gestures. Additionally, a higher WM capacity corresponded to more metaphorical verbal responses. Also, domain-specific differences were observed. The concrete metaphorical domain (body-domain) triggered the literal meaning of the vehicle, suggesting indirect processing, while abstract domain (emotion-domain) was directly interpreted metaphorically, without decomposition. The findings suggested that there is not one unified strategy to process metaphors and IC and WM play a significant role in metaphor processing in children.

Subject Keywords

metaphor comprehension, inhibitory control, working memory, direct access model, indirect access model

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105097

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis