The Spatial Metaphor Of Novelty And Usefulness In Creativity And Its Influence On Cognition

Spatial metaphor is based on the concept of space as the source domain to map on other abstract target domain.Nowadays,the metaphorical study of creativity mainly concentrate on which embody modes or what metaphor factors can affect the output of creativity,while the two core characteristics of creativity--novelty and usefulness of the spatial metaphorical mechanism is still unknown.Thus,study?(experiment 1 and 2)investigate the psychological reality of the horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness and the bidirectional mapping respectively.Experiment la figured out that the metaphor of “Familiar-Left;Novel-Right” had psychological reality.Adopting the Priming Paradigm,experiment lb showed that there was “Right is Novel”,but there wasn't “Left is Familiar”.Adopting the Priming Paradigm,Experiment lc turned out that “Right is Novel” existed,while “Left is Familiar”didn't.Experiment 2 was similar to experiment 1.Experiment 2a showed “Useful-Up;Useless –Down”.Experiment 2b showed that “Up is Useful” existed,while “Down is Useless” didn't.Experiment 2c showed that there was “Useful is Up”,while there wasn't “Useless is Down”.Study?(experiment 3 and 4)has discussed the influence on cognition of the horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness.Experiment 3 had explored the influence of the horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness on the evaluation of the novelty and usefulnness respectively.Adopting the Stroop Paradigm,experiment 3a showed that horizontal space had influenced the evaluation of the novelty,while had not influenced the evaluation of the familiar.Experiment 3b showed that vertical space had influenced the evaluation of usefulness,while had not influenced the evaluation of the useless.Experiment 4 had integrated the horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness,and tried to explore their impacts on memory.The experiment had applied picture recall task,and tried to investigate the recall quantity of the familiar and useful objects,the novel and useless objects and the novel and useful objects when they were placed at the upper left of the space(Q1)/the upper right of the space(Q2)/the lower left of the space(Q3)/the lower right of the space(Q4)respectively,the results showed that the amount of recollection of the familiar and useful objects at Q1 was significantly more than other three quadrants,and at Q1,the individual' recalled the familiar and useful objects the most;for the recall quantity of the novel useful objects,Q2 was significantly more than other three quadrants,and at Q2,the individual' recalled the novel useful objects the most;for the recall quantity of the novel useless objects,there was no significant difference between the four positions,but at Q4,the recall quantity of the novel useless objects was the most.Results:(1)In the horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty,the metaphor of “Familiar-Left;Novel-Right”and “Useful-Up;Useless-Down” in the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness are psychologically realistic.(2)The horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness are unstable and unbound,that is,“Familiar-Lef” and “Novel-Right” do not appear simultaneously,and “Useful-Up” and “Useless-Down” do not appear at the same time,either.(3)The mapping mode of horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness are bidirectional,and there are”Novel is Right”a and “Useful is Up” in the mapping from the source domain to the target domain,and in the mapping from the target domain to the source domain,there are “Right is Novel”and “Up is Useful”.(4)The horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness has affect the individual's evaluation of the novelty and usefulnness.(5)The horizontal spatial metaphor of novelty and the vertical spatial metaphor of usefulness can affect the individual's memory to some extent.