The role of working memory in metaphor production and comprehension

The following tested Kintsch’s [Kintsch, W. (2000). Metaphor comprehension: a computational theory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7, 257–266 and Kintsch, W. (2001). Predication. Cognitive Science, 25, 173–202] Predication Model, which predicts that working memory capacity is an important factor in metaphor processing. In support of his model, Experiment 1 found high working memory individuals generated better interpretations of metaphors with greater speed than did low-span individuals. Stroop performance and inhibition errors also correlated with speed and quality of interpretations. Experiment 2 found high working memory individuals produced more apt metaphors than did low-span individuals. Experiment 3 found that Digit Span Reverse predicted quality of metaphors produced better than the Digit Span Forward, the latter requiring less inhibitory control. In both Experiments 2 and 3, working memory functions were found to explain unique variance in the quality of metaphors produced, independently of measures of vocabulary knowledge and print exposure. Taken together, the results show that both general verbal knowledge and working memory functions make unique contributions to metaphor processing.