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Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study

What is difficult is not usually pleasurable. Yet, for certain unfamiliar figurative language, like that which is common in poetry, while comprehension is often more difficult than for more conventional language, it is in many cases more pleasurable. Concentrating our investigation on verb-based met...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Errington, Patrick J., Thye, Melissa, Mirman, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148355
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263781
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author Errington, Patrick J.
Thye, Melissa
Mirman, Daniel
author_facet Errington, Patrick J.
Thye, Melissa
Mirman, Daniel
author_sort Errington, Patrick J.
collection PubMed
description What is difficult is not usually pleasurable. Yet, for certain unfamiliar figurative language, like that which is common in poetry, while comprehension is often more difficult than for more conventional language, it is in many cases more pleasurable. Concentrating our investigation on verb-based metaphors, we examined whether and to what degree the novel variations (in the form of verb changes and extensions) of conventional verb metaphors were both more difficult to comprehend and yet induced more pleasure. To test this relationship, we developed a set of 62 familiar metaphor stimuli, each with corresponding optimal and excessive verb variation and metaphor extension conditions, and normed these stimuli using both objective measures and participant subjective ratings. We then tested the pleasure-difficulty relationship with an online behavioral study. Based on Rachel Giora and her colleagues’ ‘optimal innovation hypothesis’, we anticipated an inverse U-shaped relationship between ease and pleasure, with an optimal degree of difficulty, introduced by metaphor variations, producing the highest degree of pleasure when compared to familiar or excessive conditions. Results, however, revealed a more complex picture, with only metaphor extension conditions (not verb variation conditions) producing the anticipated pleasure effects. Individual differences in semantic cognition and verbal reasoning assessed using the Semantic Similarities Test, while clearly influential, further complicated the pleasure-difficulty relationship, suggesting an important avenue for further investigation.
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spelling pubmed-88363422022-02-12 Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study Errington, Patrick J. Thye, Melissa Mirman, Daniel PLoS One Research Article What is difficult is not usually pleasurable. Yet, for certain unfamiliar figurative language, like that which is common in poetry, while comprehension is often more difficult than for more conventional language, it is in many cases more pleasurable. Concentrating our investigation on verb-based metaphors, we examined whether and to what degree the novel variations (in the form of verb changes and extensions) of conventional verb metaphors were both more difficult to comprehend and yet induced more pleasure. To test this relationship, we developed a set of 62 familiar metaphor stimuli, each with corresponding optimal and excessive verb variation and metaphor extension conditions, and normed these stimuli using both objective measures and participant subjective ratings. We then tested the pleasure-difficulty relationship with an online behavioral study. Based on Rachel Giora and her colleagues’ ‘optimal innovation hypothesis’, we anticipated an inverse U-shaped relationship between ease and pleasure, with an optimal degree of difficulty, introduced by metaphor variations, producing the highest degree of pleasure when compared to familiar or excessive conditions. Results, however, revealed a more complex picture, with only metaphor extension conditions (not verb variation conditions) producing the anticipated pleasure effects. Individual differences in semantic cognition and verbal reasoning assessed using the Semantic Similarities Test, while clearly influential, further complicated the pleasure-difficulty relationship, suggesting an important avenue for further investigation. Public Library of Science 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8836342/ /pubmed/35148355 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263781 Text en © 2022 Errington et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Errington, Patrick J.
Thye, Melissa
Mirman, Daniel
Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title_full Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title_fullStr Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title_full_unstemmed Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title_short Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study
title_sort difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: a behavioral study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148355
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263781
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