Cognitive Style Variables in Participants' Explanations of Conceptual Metaphors

• DOI: 10.1207/s15327868ms1503_4
• Publication Date: 2004-01-14T15:42:54Z
• Authors: Frank Boers; Jeannette Littlemore
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; PE English; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; P Philology. Linguistics; 16. Peace & justice

A group of 71 university students were first asked to explain 3 conceptual metaphors. Then the participants' cognitive styles were classified into "analytic" or "holistic" and "imager" or "verbalizer" by means of the Riding (1991) computer-assisted test of cognitive styles. The results of the experiment revealed cognitive style variables in participants' preferred strategies to explain the metaphors: (a) "holistic thinkers" were more likely than "analytic" ones to blend their conception of the target domain with the source domain, and (b) "imagers" were more likely than "verbalizers" to refer to stereotypical images to explain the metaphors.