Metaphor as Structure-Mapping [microform] : What Develops. Technical Report No. 315 / Dedre Gentner and Patricia Stuart

A study investigated developmental changes in children's fluency in interpreting metaphors. Specifically, it examined the development of an implicit interpretation strategy found in adults of mapping relational structure from base to target. Ten subjects from each of three age groups--five to six years, nine to ten years, and college-age students--interpreted attribute, relation, and double metaphors. In attribute metaphors, the predicates shared by the base and target objects were object-attributes (both are round). In relation metaphors, the shared predicates were relations (both help people get well), while in double metaphors, both attributes and relations were shared. The major result of the study was that the relationality of the responses increased significantly with age, while attributionality showed no age increase. The findings indicate a developmental increase in relational focusing; other aspects of the data suggest that this trend may be due in part to the accretion of knowledge. (A list of materials used in the study and sample interpretations are appended.) (FL)