Effect of time constraints on the conceptual representation of metaphor processing
What shapes the conceptual representation during metaphor processing? In this paper, we investigate this question by studying the roles of both embodied simulation and linguistic distributional patterns. Researchers have propose that the linguistic component is shallow and speedy, ideal as a shortcut to construct crude representations and conserve valuable cognitive resources. Thus, during metaphor processing, people should rely on the linguistic component more if the goal of processing is shallow and the time available is limited. Here, we present two pre-registered experiments which aim to evaluate this hypothesis. The results supported the role of simulation in metaphor processing, but not the linguistic shortcut hypotheses: the effect of linguistic distributional frequency increased as people had more time to process the metaphors, and as they engaged in deep processing. Furthermore during shallow processing, the processing was easier when the embodied and linguistic components support each other. These findings indicate a complex interaction between the embodied and linguistic components during metaphor processing.