Bowes Andrea, Katz Albert
University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada,
Mem Cognit. 2015 Aug;43(6):953-63. doi: 10.3758/s13421-015-0508-4.
In 3 experiments we show that, relative to reading literal sentences, reading metaphor enhances performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an instrument meant to measure first-order theory of mind. In each experiment participants read metaphorical or literal sentences in different contexts and afterwards completed an ostensibly unrelated task, the RMET. In Experiment 1, participants were presented metaphorical or literal sentences in short discourse contexts and were asked questions about the characters in the stories. We found that when one of the characters used metaphor, they were rated as having a closer relationship. A novel finding is that the degree to which the characters are perceived as being more intimate in the metaphor condition, the higher their scores on the RMET. In Experiment 2, participants created fictive contexts to prompting literal or metaphorical sentences. This writing task was followed by the RMET. Participants who created contexts for the metaphors scored significantly higher on the RMET. In Experiment 3, participants read metaphors or literal counterparts without any discourse contexts. Once again, participants scored higher on the RMET after reading metaphorical as opposed to literal sentences. Additional analyses across the 3 experiments revealed that metaphors but not literal counterparts were associated with fictive contexts that contained reference to mental states and idioms with emotional content (Experiment 2), were associated with a sense of intimacy between interlocutors (Experiment 1), the presence of affective words in the created context (Experiment 2), and association with a human agent when context was not presented (Experiment 3).
在3项实验中，我们表明，相对于阅读直白的句子，阅读隐喻能提高“眼神读心测试”（RMET）的表现，该测试旨在衡量一阶心理理论。在每项实验中，参与者在不同情境下阅读隐喻性或直白的句子，然后完成一项表面上不相关的任务——RMET。在实验1中，参与者在简短的语篇情境中阅读隐喻性或直白的句子，并被问及关于故事中人物的问题。我们发现，当其中一个人物使用隐喻时，他们被评为关系更亲密。一个新发现是，在隐喻情境中，人物被认为越亲密，他们在RMET上的得分就越高。在实验2中，参与者创造虚构情境以引出直白或隐喻的句子。这项写作任务之后是RMET。为隐喻创造情境的参与者在RMET上的得分显著更高。在实验3中，参与者在没有任何语篇情境的情况下阅读隐喻或直白的对应句子。再次，与阅读直白句子相比，参与者在阅读隐喻句子后在RMET上得分更高。对这3项实验的进一步分析表明，隐喻而非直白的对应句子与包含对心理状态的提及和带有情感内容的习语的虚构情境相关联（实验2），与对话者之间的亲密感相关联（实验1），与所创造情境中情感词汇的出现相关联（实验2），以及在没有呈现情境时与人类主体相关联（实验3）。
