As easy as cake or a piece of pie? Processing idiom variation and the contribution of individual cognitive differences.

Language users routinely use canonical, familiar idioms in everyday communication without difficulty. However, creativity in idiom use is more widespread than sometimes assumed, and little is known about how we process creative uses of idioms, and how individual differences in cognitive skills contr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Memory & Cognition Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 334 - 352
Autores principales: Carrol, Gareth, Segaert, Katrien
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Feb2024
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: As easy as cake or a piece of pie? Processing idiom variation and the contribution of individual cognitive differences.
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          Carrol, Gareth
          Segaert, Katrien
        affil:
          https://ror.org/03angcq70 Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
          https://ror.org/03angcq70 School of Psychology and Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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        Figures of speech
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        English as a foreign language
        Short-term memory
      sug:
        subj:
          Semantics
          Recognition (Psychology)
          Readability (Literary style)
          Cognition
          Language & languages
          Individuality
          Metaphor
          Psycholinguistics
          Dialects
          Figures of speech
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          Phonological awareness
          Eye movements
          Cognitive processing speed
          English as a foreign language
          Short-term memory
      keyword:
        Cross-modal priming
        Eye-tracking
        Idioms
        Individual differences
        Cross-modal priming
        Eye-tracking
        Idioms
        Individual differences
      ab: Language users routinely use canonical, familiar idioms in everyday communication without difficulty. However, creativity in idiom use is more widespread than sometimes assumed, and little is known about how we process creative uses of idioms, and how individual differences in cognitive skills contribute to this. We used eye-tracking while reading and cross-modal priming to investigate the processing of idioms (e.g., play with fire) compared with creative variants (play with acid) and literal controls (play with toys), amongst a group of 47 university-level native speakers of English. We also conducted a series of tests to measure cognitive abilities (working memory capacity, inhibitory control, and processing speed). Eye-tracking results showed that in early reading behaviour, variants were read no differently to literal phrases or idioms but showed significantly longer overall reading times, with more rereading required compared with other conditions. Idiom variables (familiarity, decomposability, literal plausibility) and individual cognitive variables had limited effects throughout, although more decomposable phrases of all kinds required less overall reading time. Cross-modal priming—which has often shown a robust idiom advantage in past studies—demonstrated no difference between conditions, but decomposability again led to faster processing. Overall, results suggest that variants were treated more like literal phrases than novel metaphors, with subsequent effort required to make sense of these in the way that was consistent with the context provided.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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