Similarity of Affective Meaning and the Evaluation of Metaphor

1975 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 787-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn T. Kozlowski

This study explored the role of similarity of affective meaning between the elements of metaphors (an X is a Y) in the evaluation of metaphor. Similarity was measured by subjects' ratings of the metaphor elements on the Evaluation, Potency, and Activity factors of the semantic differential technique (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). To determine evaluation scores, other subjects ranked the metaphors on a Q-sort task for goodness, vividness, meaningfulness, strangeness, and interestingness. Only a positive linear relationship was found between similarity and evaluation. Similarity on Activity was most strongly related to the positive evaluation of the metaphors.

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Jia ◽  
T Misawa ◽  
M Takamatsu ◽  
S Hirobayashi

Japanese-style gardens offer a wealth of spiritual and cultural value. In this study, we attempt to determine the optimum colour temperature for lighting Japanese-style gardens at night. We analyse the influence of a change in light source colour temperature on image recognition using digitalization and quantification with the semantic differential technique. In addition, we propose a new evaluation methodology for the semantic differential technique and examine the statistical significance of the results. We find that in summer, impressions of the optimum colour temperature for each element (vegetation, water, stone and structure) differ significantly, but in winter, because of the effects of snow, differences in the impression of each colour temperature are not as distinct. Moreover, the colour of the natural environment or overall season affects peoples’ preferred light source colour temperature.


1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Hacohen ◽  
Naphtali Wagner

Wagner's leitmotifs were intentionally constructed as compact, discrete musical units charged with extramusical meaning. Should they be considered merely as arbitrary signifiers, whose signifieds are discovered only through the dramatic context of their appearance? The research reported here rejects this possibility, demonstrating experimentally that the leitmotifs bear inherent meaning. It is this meaning that grants them their communicative potential and provides a basis for the specific message given them in the setting of the specific musical work. A selection of nine representative leitmotifs from Wagner's Ring cycle was played to subjects during the course of a two-part experiment. The first part, which was designed on the basis of the semantic differential technique, yielded several significant factors that defined an inclusive connotative space. The second part of the experiment was designed and evaluated according to the "semantic integral" method, which was developed for the purpose of adding a denotative dimension, using titles given to the leitmotifs by the subjects. The results substantiated the existence of complementary relations between the connotative and denotative aspects of the leitmotifs. Findings of this sort should assist in explaining how the leitmotifs function within the dramatic context. The methods applied, as well as the findings arrived at, disclose, we believe, essential characteristics of the semantic structure of music in general.


2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Gustaf Norbergh ◽  
Yvonne Helin ◽  
Annika Dahl ◽  
Ove Hellzén ◽  
Kenneth Asplund

One important aspect of the nurse-patient relationship is nurses’ attitudes towards their patients. Nurses’ attitudes towards people with dementia have been studied from a wide range of approaches, but few authors have focused on the structure of these attitudes. This study aimed to identify a structure in licensed practical nurses’ attitudes towards people with dementia. Twenty-one group dwelling units for people with dementia at 11 nursing homes participated in the study. A total of 1 577 assessments of 178 patients were sent out to 181 respondents and 1 237 answers were returned. The semantic differential technique was used. The scale had 57 bipolar pairs of adjectives that estimate an unknown number of dimensions of nurses’ attitudes towards an identified patient. The assessments were analysed using entropy-based measures of association combined with structural plots. The analysis revealed four dimensions, which related to licensed practical nurses’ opinions of the patients: an ethical and aesthetic dimension; an ability to understand; an ability to experience; and an ability for social interaction. The results of the study indicated that, on the positive to negative attitude continuum, the nurses’ attitudes fell at the positive to neutral end. This is an important finding owing to the personhood perspective, from which it is reasonable to assume that, with a more positive attitude to people with dementia, the prerequisites for person-centred care will improve.


1971 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-373
Author(s):  
Abraham A. Moles ◽  
Tamar Grunewald

The paper gives the theoretical background of a Cross- Cultural Study carried out in the Institute of Social Psychology in Strasbourg. If the fact that Jews are different is an objective one, there must be observable differences in their attitudes and especially in those covert attitudes : the affective meaning of the language in which we express our thoughts. Using the Semantic Differential technique, Jews and Non- Jews were given the same list of concepts to evaluate with the help of descriptive scales. The analysis of the data provides evidence of the relevant concepts for which the variable Jew/ Non-Jew is determinative, independently from other variables, thus demonstrating the existence of a Jewish specifisity. If the same phenomenon can be observed cross-culturally, we can speak of a Jewish identity. Using a couple of other techniques which enable us to identify some constants, each of them being a dimension of a configuration space, we could locate the test subjects (J, J, J,... Jn for Jews and NJ, NJ, NJ,... NJ n for Non-Jews) and then measure the distance between the two main clusters, which we identify as the Judaicity factor.


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