Open Access"Good Is Up” Is Not Always Better: A Memory Advantage for Words in Metaphor-Incompatible Locations
Author(s) -
L. Elizabeth Crawford,
Stephanie M. Cohn,
Arnold B. Kim
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0108269
Subject(s) - metaphor , recall , encoding (memory) , cognition , cognitive psychology , affect (linguistics) , conceptual metaphor , psychology , word (group theory) , encoding specificity principle , computer science , communication , linguistics , neuroscience , philosophy
Four experiments examined whether memory for positive and negative words depended on word location and vertical hand movements. Cognitive processing is known to be facilitated when valenced stimuli are presented in locations that are congruent with the GOOD is UP conceptual metaphor, relative to when they are presented in incongruent locations. In both free recall and recognition tasks, we find a memory advantage for words that had been studied in metaphor incongruent locations (positive down, negative up). This incongruity advantage depends on the location of words during encoding, but no evidence was found to suggest that other spatial associations, such as the vertical position of the hand at encoding or word location during retrieval, affect memory. The results indicate that metaphors, like schemas, categories, and stereotypes, can influence cognition in complex ways, producing variable outcomes across different tasks.