Effect of Different Contexts on Memory for Metaphor

Three experiments address the relationships of memory for metaphors to various rated attributes of metaphors: metaphoricity, imagery value, similarity of tenor and vehicle concepts, quality of metaphors in single sentences or in extended natural contexts, and comprehensibility. Experiment I used written metaphors in prose fiction. Vehicles were recalled as often as tenors in free recall but were better cues for tenors than vice versa. Imagery was related to the cued recall of tenors given vehicles as cues, and there were more significant relationships between recall and imagery than between recall and similarity or quality, both of which also were slightly positively correlated with some recall frequencies. Comprehensibility, measured by the number of valid interpretations a metaphor received, was unrelated to any measure of memory. Experiment 2 used tape-recorded metaphors found in spontaneous speech. Imagery was significantly more related to (free) recall in this experiment than in the previous one, and it was the only significant correlate of recall. Similarity and quality tended to negatively correlate with recall here. Experiment 3 teased apart procedural confounds in the first two experiments, looking at written versions of the metaphors used in Experiment 2. Written presentation depressed levels of recall and perceived quality, but not imagery values. The types of metaphors found in prose fiction versus spontaneous speech occasion different relationships between memory and three attributes: imagery, similarity, and quality. It was concluded that the vehicle filters the tenor in an image whose strength is a good predictor of how memorable the metaphor will be, especially for metaphors in spontaneous speech.