Mental Simulation in the Processing of Literal and Metaphorical Motion Language: An Eye Movement Study

Abstract

An eye-tracking while listening study based on the blank screen paradigm was conducted to investigate the processing of literal and metaphorical verbs of motion. The study was based on two assumptions from the literature: that language comprehension by default engages mental simulation, and that looking behavior (measured through patterns of eye-movements) can provide a window into ongoing cognitive processes. This study specifically compared the comprehension of sentences that depicted actual physical motion (the curtain is rising) and sentences that described changes in quantity or emotional states in terms of vertical motion (prices are rising). Results showed that eye-movements were selectively biased upward or downward in accordance with the direction implied by the verb, regardless of the context (literal or metaphorical) in which they appeared, and in the absence of any visual stimuli or explicit task. Thus, these findings suggest that literal and metaphorical language drive spontaneous, direction-specific mental simulations captured by eye-movements, and that at least in the case of verbs presented in the present progressive, which emphasizes the ongoing nature of actions, visual biases along the vertical axis may start during the verb itself.

Let’s talk over coffee: Exploring the effect of coffee flavour descriptions on consumer imagery and behaviour

“…Interestingly, even when the same words were used in different types of descriptions, words in sentence context lead to higher imagery vividness, but there was no difference in figurative versus stative description contexts. In the domain of motion, words in the context of an actual physical motion or a metaphorical motion were both shown to lead to similar eye-movement, suggesting both led to mental simulation (Castaño & Carrol, 2020;also see Boulanger, Hauk & Pulvermuller, 2008), which might explain the lack of a difference found in the current experiments.…”

Let’s talk over coffee: Exploring the effect of coffee flavour descriptions on consumer imagery and behaviour

“…Interestingly, even when the same words were used in different types of descriptions, words in sentence context lead to higher imagery vividness, but there was no difference in figurative versus stative description contexts. In the domain of motion, words in the context of an actual physical motion or a metaphorical motion were both shown to lead to similar eye-movement, suggesting both led to mental simulation (Castaño & Carrol, 2020; also see Boulenger et al, 2009), which might explain the lack of a difference found in the current experiments. Summarising, in line with how wine experts generally describe the flavour of wine (Herdenstam et al, 2009), narratives seem more effective than single words to communicate flavours.…”

A Review of Studies Supporting Metaphorical Embodiment

“…This suggests that fictive motions are mentally simulated and these mental simulations are realized in eye movements. Castaño and Carrol [36] examined patterns of eye movements of a group of participants during processing literal sentences that described actual physical motions (e.g., the curtain is rising) and metaphoric sentences that described changes in quantity or emotional states in terms of motion (e.g., prices are rising). The results of this study showed that eye movements were mostly compatible with the direction implied by the verb, regardless of whether the verb had been used in a literal or metaphorical sense.…”