When the sad past is left: the mental metaphors between time, valence, and space
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Spatola, Nicolas; Santiago de Torres, Julio; Beffara, Brice; Mermillod, Martial; Ferrand, Ludovic; Ouellet, MarcEditorial
Frontiers Media
Materia
Mental metaphor Conceptual metaphor Coherent working models Time Valence Space
Date
2018-06-28Referencia bibliográfica
Spatola N, Santiago J, Beffara B, Mermillod M, Ferrand L and Ouellet M (2018) When the Sad Past Is Left: The Mental Metaphors Between Time, Valence, and Space. Front. Psychol. 9:1019. [doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01019]
Sponsorship
MO was supported by a Juan de la Cierva fellowship (JCI-2012-13046) from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. Research was funded by research projects PSI2012-32464 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and PSI2015-67531-P (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) to JS.Abstract
A mental metaphor is a strategy that consists of completing the representation of
a concept with structural components of a correlating concept. Three issues were
addressed here to deepen our understanding of this mechanism: the use of mental
metaphors between abstract concepts, the simultaneous activation of multiple mental
metaphors and the importance of the focus of attention on the relevant dimensions of a
mental metaphor. In two experiments, participants made temporal or valence judgments
(with their left or right hand) on verbs with a negative or positive meaning and conjugated
in the past or future form, allowing for the simultaneous activation of the “time is space”,
“valence is space,” and “time is valence” mental metaphors. Left-past/right-future and
left-negative/right-positive congruency effects were found, and these effects were greater
in the temporal and valence judgment tasks, respectively, demonstrating the importance
of attentional cuing. Simultaneously, a congruency effect between the abstract concepts
of time and valence (past-negative/future-positive) was observed, revealing that a mental
metaphor can occur between abstract concepts and that multiple metaphors can be
processed simultaneously. These results are discussed in terms of different theories
within the field of mental metaphors.