YOUNG CHILDRENS COMPREHENSION OF SIMPLE AND COMPLEX METAPHORS PRESENTED IN PICTURES AND WORDS

Studies investigating children's metaphoric competence have frequently encouraged very young children to make judgments of similarity that r ely almost exclusively on perceptual, visually explicit qualities such as shape and color (Vosniadou & Ortony, 1983). This study used materi als that allowed young children (3,4, and 5 years old) to make similar ity judgments based on perceptually explicit criteria as well as crite ria that were implicit in that criterial informtion could not be scrut inized. These materials were presented in pictures and in words, which made it possible to determine whether children could demonstrate meta phoric competence equally in both media. The results of this study sho w that children as young as 3 years old are able to metaphorically rel ate and explain domain resemblances based on implicit, as well as expl icit, criteria. Across all materials, children were better able to per ceive metaphorical relations in pictures than in words. These results suggest that metaphoric competence is present at an early age. They al so suggest that metaphoric competence represents more than the ability to see perceptual relations between things-that it is a general strat egic function at the service of children's effort after meaning.