Universität zu Köln

Dolscheid, Sarah ORCID: 0000-0001-9104-6386 and Casasanto, Daniel (2015). Spatial Congruity Effects Reveal Metaphorical Thinking, not Polarity Correspondence. Front. Psychol., 6. LAUSANNE: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA. ISSN 1664-1078

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Abstract

Spatial congruity effects have often been interpreted as evidence for metaphorical thinking, but an alternative account based on polarity correspondence (a.k.a. markedness) has challenged this view. Here we compared metaphor- and polarity-correspondence-based explanations for spatial congruity effects, using musical pitch as a testbed. In one experiment, English speakers classified high- and low frequency pitches as high and low, or as front and back, to determine whether space-pitch congruity effects could be elicited by any marked spatial continuum. Although both pairs of terms describe bipolar spatial continuums, we found congruity effects only for high/low judgments, indicating that markedness is not sufficient to produce space pitch congruity effects. A second experiment confirmed that there were no space-pitch congruity effects for another pair of terms that have clear markedness (big/small), but which do not denote spatial height. By contrast, this experiment showed congruity effects for words that cued an appropriate vertical spatial schema (tall/short), even though these words are not used conventionally in English to describe pitches, ruling out explanations for the observed pattern of results based on verbal polysemy. Together, results suggest that space pitch congruity effects reveal metaphorical uses of spatial schemas, not polarity correspondence effects.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Dolscheid, Sarah UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-9104-6386 UNSPECIFIED Casasanto, Daniel UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-386738
DOI:	10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01836
Journal or Publication Title:	Front. Psychol.
Volume:	6
Date:	2015
Publisher:	FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
Place of Publication:	LAUSANNE
ISSN:	1664-1078
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language PITCH; SPACE; TIME; ASSOCIATIONS; MARKEDNESS; THICKNESS; INFANTS Multiple languages Psychology, Multidisciplinary Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/38673