COMPONENTS OF METAPHORIC PROCESSING

Three experiments examined whether sentences interpretable as metaphor ical and literal expressions differed on three components of processin g: perceptual decoding, sense selection, and integration of terms. In Experiments 1 and 2 metaphorical words were identified more readily th an literal words on separate tests of perceptual identification and wo rd recognition In Experiment 3 the conveyed meaning of a metaphor was not recalled better than a literal interpretation of the same target s entence. It is concluded that metaphorical and literal sentences utili ze separate perceptual and selectional decoding strategies, but do not differ with respect to comprehension processes once metaphorical and literal referents are instantiated. Discussion is given as to whether these differences constitute a separate metaphor strategy.