Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

A cross-tncxlal priming paradigm was used to investigate the time course of figurative activation for metaphors which varied in famiharity. In Experiment 1 the target was presented immediately at the offset of the vehicle. For high familiar metaphors, both literal and figurative interpretations showed evidence of immediate availability. For low familiar metaphors, the Uteral interpretation was available but the figurative target showed inhibition. Experiment 2 delayed presentation of the target 300 ms. and similar results were found, aldiough inhibition of the figurative target decreased. Together, Experiments 1 and 2 showed the figurative meaning is more readily available in highly famiUar metaphors. The results of Experiment 3 suggest metaphor aptness is especially important for low familiar metaphors. The implications of these findings for models of non-literal language are discussed.