Stream of consciousness: The role of metaphor in abstract causal reasoning

The way abstract domains are structured and represented in the human conceptual system has received much less attention than concrete domains. Most current theories of object concept formation are unable to adequately explain abstract concept formation. A theory of metaphoric representation has been proposed as a possible approach to understanding how abstract concepts are structured. The theory suggests metaphors are used for organizing information within abstract domains by importing relational structure from concrete domains. Although a growing body of literature has begun to provide evidence in favor of such a theory, more support is needed before it can be accepted as a plausible model.; The current series of studies have been designed to address more specifically the relationship between abstract and concrete concepts and to evaluate the theory of metaphoric representation. Much of the support thus far has come from within the specific metaphor of TIME is SPACE which suggests the abstract domain of time is represented by way of the more concrete domain of space. In order to investigate peoples' conceptions of the relationship between time and space, a more in-depth analysis of the domain of time is necessary.; Although the metaphoric view of representation appeared at first glance to be a plausible theory of abstract concept formation the current studies do not provided any strong support in favor of such a theory. In addition, they have brought into question previous studies of the metaphoric structuring hypothesis further reducing the evidence in support of this theory.