Mental imagery of concrete proverbs: A developmental study of children, adolescents, and adults

Proverbs (e.g., The early bird catches the worm) are figurative sayings that are frequently used in educational materials, media, and discussions. Proverb comprehension occurs when the meaning of the expression is metaphorically mapped onto the literal concepts expressed in the statement, a process that is generally considered to be difficult for children. This study investigated developmental features of concrete proverb understanding in normally achieving school-aged children, high school adolescents, and young adults (mean ages = 11;8 [years;months], 17;0, and 23;6). Specifically, the role of mental imagery in relation to proverb comprehension and proverb familiarity was investigated. The 70 participants in each group (N = 210) completed three written tasks related to 20 proverbs composed of concrete nouns. As predicted, there were age-related increases in each of the three variables tested: comprehension, mental imagery, and familiarity. While all participants reported more literal-concrete-relevant mental images than figurative images, adults reported more figurative mental images than children. There were no significant differences between adolescents and children in mental imagery for proverbs. Adults rated the proverbs as more familiar than children, but there were no significant differences between adolescents and children in proverb familiarity. Qualitatively, children and adolescents rated similar proverbs as most familiar and least familiar, whereas adults identified different proverbs to be most or least familiar to them. These discrepancies may reflect differences in proverb exposure for the younger groups as compared to the adults. The results demonstrated there is a relationship between mental imagery and comprehension for children and adults. Children and adults were more likely to report figurative mental imagery if they comprehended the proverb. The adults and adolescents performed at or near ceiling levels in the comprehension of concrete proverbs, whereas the children had more difficulty in comprehending the expressions. The study also found a relationship between proverb familiarity and metaphorical mental imagery in adolescents and adults. This suggests that proverbs that are well-learned and stored in memory are more likely to be directly retrieved and their metaphorical meanings accessed directly, a view proposed by Gibbs and his colleagues (1997) following a study of adults' mental imagery of proverbs.