Abstract
The present study aimed to verify whether topic description affects ease of metaphor production. It also aimed to verify whether the effect of topic description differs between metaphor and literal expressions. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 23) recalled and explained their past emotional experiences using an expression in two different topics:(i) actions, and (ii) emotional states they had at that time. In each topic, participants had to make two different expression types separately: (a) metaphor, and (b) literal. As indexes of ease of producing an expression, explanation time and subjective difficulty rating in producing each expression were recorded. We observed an interaction effect between expression type and topic description: In the metaphor condition, explaining actions took a longer explanation time and was subjectively rated more difficult to explain than actions. In Experiment 2 (N = 41), we put strong syntactical limitation on participant responses, and recorded thinking time in expression production and subjective difficulty rating. We observed an interaction effect between expression type and topic description: In metaphor condition, thinking about expression of actions took a longer time than actions. These results suggest that topic description affects ease of metaphor production.
