[The clouds are a flock of sheep: at what age do children understand that there are no sheep in the sky?]

Abstract

This study examined the evolution of metaphor understanding in 4- to 7-year-old children. In Experiment 1, children listened to metaphoric and literal statements that were preceded by a context, and then had to choose among three proposed interpretations (literal, contextual, and correct for metaphors; one correct and two erroneous for literal statements), which one corresponded to the statement. Results showed that, between 4 and 7, children improved at choosing the correct interpretation only for metaphors, and that they frequently chose contextual interpretations. The metaphor-specific improvement might be explained in terms of a gain in cognitive flexibility, since for these statements, three acceptable interpretations were proposed compared to only one for literal statements. In Experiment 2, for all statements, children had to choose between three proposed interpretations, one correct and two erroneous. The difference between metaphors and literal statements was replicated. Metaphor understanding thus evolves between 4 and 7; depending on their age, children use the context or perform a semantic analysis of the words composing the statements.