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The role of metaphor in comprehension processes

Robertson, Carolyn Seils, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University, 1988

Copyright ©1988 by Robertson, Carolyn Seils. All rights reserved.

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UMI THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN COMPREHENSION PROCESSES

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of the Ohio State University

By

Carolyn Seils Robertson, B.A., M.A.

* * * * *

The Ohio State University

1988

Dissertation Committee Approved by

V. Rentel

J. Green

F. Zidonis Copyright by Carolyn Seils Robertson

1988 To Mike, Annie, and Mark

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I express sincere appreciation to Dr. Victor M. Rentel for his

thoughtful guidance throughout the process of conceptualizing and

carrying out the study. Despite his very busy schedule, he was always

there when I needed to discuss one or another aspect of the work. Thanks go to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs. Judith L. Green and Frank Zidonis, for the time they spend reading my work and talking with me about it. Their suggestions helped shape the direction of my thought.

I am grateful to many members of the Denison University community, as well. Drs. Keith Boone, Dennis Read, Kenneth Klatt, Tony Stoneburner,

Kenneth Marshall, Janet Freeman, George Gilbert, Julie Mulroy, and Bonnie

Lamvermeyer participated in the process of creating the experimental materials and the criteria for scoring them. Drs. Kenneth Marshall,

Dennis Read, Tommy Burkett, Janet Freeman, Ronald Santoni, Judith

Cochran, Dominic Consolo, William Nichols, James Freeman, Quentin Kraft,

Tony Stoneburner, Garrett Jacobsen, and Richard Tobin allowed their students to participate, some in the preliminary study and some in the study reported here. The students were enthusiastic and careful participants. Dr. Rita Snyder provided assistance in the use of SPSS-X and valuable moral support.

iii The members of the Denison Education Department were helpful to me in many important ways. Dr. Thomas Gallant, Jane King, Barbara Bruner, and Jane Richardson were unfailingly encouraging. Jane Richardson assisted by typing and producing the final copy.

I thank my husband, Mike, my children, Annie and Mark, and the other members of my family for understanding my need to pursue this work and for their faith in me. VITA /

June 16, 1948...... 0...Born - Newton, Massachusetts

1970...... B.A., Denison University, Granville, Ohio

1972-1979...... Teacher of English, Newark Public Schools, Newark, Ohio

1976...... M.A., Reading and Language, College of Education, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

1979-1987...... Assistant Dean for Educational Services and Instructor, Education Department, Denison University, Granville, Ohio

1987-present...... Instructor, Education Department, Denison University, Granville, Ohio

PUBLICATIONS

Robertson, L. & Russell, K. (1986). Teaching analytical reading and writing: a feminist approach. Teaching Philosophy, 9 (3), 207-217.

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Reading

v TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... iii

VITA...... v

LIST OF TABLES...... ix

LIST OF FIGURES...... xi

CHAPTER PAGE

1. INTRODUCTION...... 1

Statement of the Problem...... 3 Definition of the Problem...... 4 Overview of the Study...... 5 Scope and Limitations of the Study...... 7 Organization of the Study...... 8

2. THEORIES OF COMPREHENSION ...... 9

Transactional Theory...... 9 Response Theory...... 11 Schema Theory...... 14 The Connection to a Philosophical Interpretation...... 18

3. THEORIES AND STUDIES OF METAPHOR...... 20

Theories of Metaphor...... 20 Interaction Theory and Transactional Theory...... 22 Conclusion...... 25 Studies of Metaphor...... 26 Developmental Studies...... 26 Studies of the Processes Adults Use in Comprehending Metaphors...... 32 Stage Models...... 32 Salience of Attributes...... 34 Effects of Context...... 36 The Effect of Metaphor on Recall...... 37 The Effect of Metaphor on Comprehension.... 40 The Effects of Instruction on the Ability to Use Metaphor...... 41 Conclusion...... 42 4. THE PROBLEM AND THE METHODOLOGY 43

Methodology...... 43 Part 1...... 45 Part 2...... 47

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION...... 49

Part 1...... 49 Honors Students...... 51 Freshman Studies Students...... 56 Summary Data...... 56 Memory Data...... 57 Total Data...... 60 Faculty Readers...... 65 The Metaphor Condition...... 66 The Literal Condition...... 67 The Neither Condition...... 68 Conclusion...... 69

Part II...... 70 The Genetic Code Paragraph...... 72 The Metaphor Condition...... 72 The Literal Condition...... 85 The Neither Condition...... 98 The Artificial Paragraph...... 100 The Literary Paragraph ...... 104 The Metaphor Condition...... 104 The Literal Condition...... 105 The Neither Condition...... 105

6. INTERPRETATION, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH...... 107

Interpretation and Conclusions...... 107 Implications for Further Study...... 116

APPENDICES

A. Experimental Materials...... 119 General Directions, Part I...... 120 Metaphor Condition, Part 1...... 121 Literal Condition, Part 1...... 127 Neither Condition, Part 1...... 133 Criteria for Scoring...... 139 Science Paragraph...... 139 Artificial Paragraph...... 140 Literary Paragraph...... 141

vii General Directions, Fart II...... 142 Metaphor Condition, Part II...... 143 Literal Condition, Part II...... 150 Neither Condition, Part II...... 157 Criteria for Scoring...... 164 Science Paragraph...... 164 Artificial Paragraph...... 165 Literary Paragraph...... 166

B. Diagrams of Oral Reponses to the Literary Paragraph...... 167

LIST OF REFERENCES...... 188

viii LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. The experimental design and number of subjects per cell...... »...... 50

2. Homogeneity of variance test...... 52

3. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries of the science paragraph...... 58

4. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries of the artificial paragraph...... 58

5. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries of the literary paragraph...... 59

6. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in means of summaries across paragraphs...... 59

7. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries from memory of the science paragraph...... 61

8. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries from memory of the artificial paragraph...... 61

9. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries from memory of the literary paragraph...... 62

10. Analysis of variance of FS scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in means of summaries from memory across paragraphs 62

11. Analysis of variance of FS total scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries of the science paragraph...... 63

12. Analysis of variance of FS total scores in metaphor, literal, neither conditions in summaries of the artificial paragraph...... 63

ix TABLE PAGE

13. Analysis of variance of FS total scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in summaries of the literary paragraph...... 64

14. Analysis of variance of FS total scores in metaphor, literal, and neither conditions in means of summaries across paragraphs...... 64

15. Scores of faculty member without prior know­ ledge receiving the metaphor in Part I ...... 66

16. Scores of faculty members without prior know­ ledge receiving the literal condition in Part 1..... 67

17. Scores of faculty members without prior know­ ledge receiving neither metaphor nor literal condition in Part 1 ...... 68

x LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES PAGE

1. Summary scores...... 53

2. Memory scores...... 54

3. Total scores...... 55

4. Metaphor Condition...... 73

5. Metaphor Condition...... 75

6. Metaphor Condition...... 76

7. Metaphor Condition...... 77

8. Metaphor Condition...... 78

9. Metaphor Condition...... 79

10. Metaphor Condition...... 80

11. Metaphor Condition...... 81

12. Metaphor Condition...... 82

13. Metaphor Condition...... 83

14. Literal Condition...... 86

15. Literal Condition...... 87

16. Literal Condition...... 89

17. Literal Condition...... 91

18. Literal Condition...... 92

19. Literal Condition...... 93

20. Literal Condition...... 96

21. Literal Condition...... 97

xi FIGURES PAGE

22. Neither Condition...... 99

23. Neither Condition...... 101

24. Neither Condition...... 102

25. Neither Condition...... 103 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Expert readers are those who can navigate a text with little diffi­ culty, though not necessarily without effort. They understand and remember more and are more likely to be able to evaluate and apply what they have read to new contexts. How they do it has been the subject of much investigation. Less has been done on how a reader comes to under­ stand a completely new idea. This study makes use of previous work and theories about comprehension processes in the various areas of literary criticism, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics in order to proceed to questions that might illuminate the process of coming to understand a new idea and that might provide insight into instructional procedures which enable good comprehension to develop in secondary school and college students. Comprehension is, of course, not restricted to read­ ing, but, for the purposes of this study, will be discussed as it applies to reading.

Possessing great skill in reading can be said to be related gener­ ally to having had repeated experience with certain kinds of texts as well as to a practiced ability to construct and monitor meaning.

Readers possessing such skill have amassed a large body of knowledge about a particular content. In doing so they have also become members of a community of scholars and have learned to act within well-defined paradigms which are specific ways of using language and of applying the

"standard beliefs and procedures" agreed upon by that group (Kuhn, 1962,

1 p. 66). Skill in reading is, therefore, a result of extended experience in a field of study. Through years of study and training such readers have developed a commitment to a paradigm or set of paradigms that guides their comprehension and evaluation of information in their field.

The definition of an expert reader must include a description of the reader's background and its relation to the text being read.

Commitment to a particular field carries with it a stock of permissible and conventional questions, structures and methods of thinking, and certain criteria for the solution of problems. Implicit and explicit assumptions and their concomitant evaluative criteria which serve well in one area may not be useful in a new territory. There is evidence that thinkers (readers and writers) skilled in one area must proceed as novices when entering an as yet unexplored area (Williams, Note 1).

Commitment to the conventional modes of thought in a discipline is so powerful, Kuhn suggests, that it usually takes a person who is very young or very new to a field to recognize that certain data do not fit the agreed-upon paradigm. It is only with that recognition that the search can begin for a new paradigm which is a new way of explaining the data (Kuhn, 1962, p. 90). The initiation of such a radical move produces revolutionary periods of scientific endeavor. While such moves cannot be made without some exposure to the conventional paradigms of the field, such exposure cannot be so extensive that it inhibits the possibility of viewing the existing data in a novel way..

Kuhn's account of paradigm shift is the underlying metaphor for this study, for it need not apply to scientific endeavors only. Kuhn's theory serves to bring together aspects of the comprehension models proposed in the aforementioned fields and it can be seen as offering an explanation of the process through which a reader goes in attempting to develop a new concept. The argument proposed herein is that in order for a reader to grasp a new idea in text, she or he must link new infor­ mation to old without letting the old information impede new insight.

The study to be described is an experimental investigation of the hypothesis that an appropriate and well formed metaphor can serve as a powerful bridge for linking the new to the old.

Statement of the Problem

As will be seen in the discussion of proposed theories of compre­ hension processes in Chapter II (transactional theory, response theory, schema theory, and philosophic perspectives), each theory accounts for the processing of information available to a reader in terms of the background knowledge she or he possesses. The quality of such process­ ing is described as depending upon a system of thought shaped by exper­ iences stored in memory. While there is much speculation about how a reader comes to interpret a particularly accessible text, there is less attention given to how a novel idea is gained by a reader.

On the basis of the philosophic work of Hanson (1970), Hesse

(1966), Black (1962), and Richards (1936), Bransford and Nitsch (1985) argued that a new concept must be encountered in the context of an already known concept. The presence of a "live" metaphor was said to be facilitative to the acquisition of the new concept. Their work provides the foundation for the three hypotheses proposed in this study.

The main questions investigated are whether and how a metaphor serves as a connecting mechanism between an already held concept and a new one.

Definition of the Problem

Metaphor has been studied from various viewpoints: the philosophi­ cal, the psychological, and the instructional.

Studies involving metaphor have attempted to answer a series of questions. The first, concerning whether a stage model describes how metaphors are processed, is answered affirmatively, although what takes place during any of the proposed steps has not been identified. Propo­ nents of the comparison, the substitution, or the interaction theory have written about processes they have deduced, but have not tested them.

The second question involves whether it is the salience of the attributes contained in the metaphor or the general ability to use metaphor which is more important. Surely, a metaphor is not comprehen­ sible if its form is foreign to the comprehender, but it is clear that to that ability must be added experience with the elements of the attributes in order for the metaphor to be in any way accessible.

Question three looks at the effects of context on the speed of comprehension of metaphor and concludes, in agreement with schema theory and reader response theory, that meaning is generated in the mind of the reader and is dependent to large degree upon the experiences stored in memory. The fourth question asks whether a well designed metaphor is more memorable than comparable literal material. In all but one study this was the case. Suggested explanations for the effect range from the degree of interest generated by the metaphor to the vividness of the metaphor itself to amount of cognitive effort expended in processing the metaphoric language to developmental stage of the reader.

Whether metaphor can enhance comprehension is the fifth question.

This is an important question, and the neutral and negative findings of the two studies of it do not fit the predictions schema theory and response theory should allow to be made. It is necessary to study this question further.

The sixth question is whether children can be taught to use meta­ phors. Since the answer seems clearly to be that even elementary school children can benefit from such instruction, how to proceed with such instruction becomes an important area of inquiry.

Overview of the Study

The study to be reported below explored the role of metaphor in the process of coming to understand a concept or point of view which is new to the reader. The results provide insight into theory concerning metaphors and their comprehension, particularly as they are applicable to the extension of schema theory, and, further, as they apply to instructional practice. More important, the results contradict the findings that metaphors do not enhance comprehension. 6

A two-part experiment involving three conditions provided data for answering the following questions:

1. Does a priming metaphor facilitate comprehension? For which

subjects?

2. Do readers in general exhibit any common patterns?

3. Do Honors students and Freshman Studies students exhibit any

different patterns?

Hypotheses include:

1. A priming metaphor will facilitate comprehension in all cases,

with particular facilitation occurring for the less expert

readers.

2. Readers in general will exhibit common patterns with evidence

of difficulty coming at particular points in the text. Readers

primed with the metaphor will show some reliance on it at

these points which should correspond to the topic, ground, and

vehicle of the metaphor.

3. Responses across groups should reveal evidence of processing

metaphor as comparative or interactive. Petrie (1979, p. 451)

hypothesizes, "Although the metaphor being used by the teacher 7

may be comparative from the teacher's point of view, it is an

interactive metaphor from the student's point of view."

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The study was undertaken to determine whether first year college students' comprehension of academic material which presents new concepts

can be improved by the presentation of a metaphor designed to function as a schema of the new concept.

In interpreting the results of this study, the following limita­ tions should be considered:

1. For the purposes of the study the written and oral responses collected from students and professors are regarded as their thoughts after and during their reading of the experimental materials. There may have been responses not mentioned and recorded.

2. Scoring of the subjects' protocols was done on the basis of the number of idea units they included in common with a structure of idea units judged to be important by professors both in and out of the fields from which the experimental materials were taken. This approach was taken because the questions driving the study involved responses to academic reading and the judgments of the relative importance of idea units performed by the teachers of that concept were considered to have greater validity in the task. Had propositional analysis been utilized, the results might have been different.

3. The number of subjects in the study and the unequal number of subjects in the various treatment groups limits the conclusions which can be made. 8

Organization of the Study

The purpose of Chapter II: "Theories of Comprehension" is to examine work and theories about comprehension processes in the areas of literary criticism, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics in order to proceed to Chapter III: "Theories and Studies of Metaphor." In Chapter

IV: "The Methodology," the procedures are outlined for two interrelated experiments designed to capture the essential aspects of the role of metaphor in comprehension processes. Chapter V discusses the results, and Chapter VI contains interpretations, conclusions, and recommenda­ tions for further study. CHAPTER II

THEORIES OF COMPREHENSION

Transactional Theory

Rosenblatt's transactional theory of the literary work considers the relative contributions of the reader and the text necessary for comprehension to occur. Rosenblatt specifies that the author, the book, and the reader together contribute to the making of a poem, her term for any text.

Rosenblatt reacts against the view that all meaning resides in the text where the thoughtful reader imbued with literary terminology must find it. She writes that the New Critics, wedded to the text and to logical positivism, misconstrued the point of I.A. Richards' influential book, Practical Criticism (1929), when they included it in their ap­ proach; where Richards recommended close reading and wariness of parti­ cular pitfalls in the critical process (difficulties with imagery or adherence to particular doctrines, for example), the New Critics focused on these as techniques for the reader to follow in locating meaning in a text (Rosenblatt, 1983, p. viii).

Transactional theory focuses mainly on the reader, reflecting

Rosenblatt's position that while the author, the book, and the reader are all necessary to the intelligent comprehension of a text, in tradi­ tional theory the reader has been neglected in analyses of the process.

Meaning has been regarded traditionally as residing in the words on the

9 10 page. While she concedes that the New Critics were able to change the emphasis in the teaching of literature from that of studying it merely as historical or autobiographical, she goes much further and prominently incorporates the reader's responses into theories about the process.

Rosenblatt criticizes theorists who would go too far in that direction by putting total emphasis on the individual reader and what she or he brings to the words on the page. The text cannot be ignored any more than can the reader, otherwise anything could be interpreted in any way that happens to occur to the reader.

Transactional theory recognizes that people read for different purposes. They read to get information (efferent reading) and they read for the pleasure of the experience (aesthetic reading).

The unique world view of the reader becomes part of every reading episode as the reader constructs a poem (the meaning of the work) from the text (the actual words on the page). Such a reader must be "active, self-ordering, and self-correcting" (Rosenblatt, 1978, p. 11). Rather than reading straight through the text in a linear sequence, the reader's attention moves back and forth among the ideas, making a tenta­ tive conclusion here and modifying it there, all the while using what is already known and relying on the text for guidance.

An important distinction which must be made is that in bringing the text to life the reader must rely on his or her own experience and world view which include conscious or unconscious commitment to a paradigm; the reader has no other resources. A reader with a great deal of liter­ ary experience, for example, has more experience with which to make sophisticated evaluations than does the less experienced reader, and so 11 that very body of experience— vast or limited— is an important element in the understandings created by the reader. It does not make sense to denigrate the adolescent's interpretation of a classic work, for example, simply because it is not informed in the same way an adult's might be. There is little chance that the adolescent could become so informed; he or she simply has not yet lived long enough.

What the reader has elicited from the text up to any point generates a receptivity to certain kinds of ideas, overtones, or attitudes. Perhaps one can think of this as an alerting of certain reservoirs of experience, know­ ledge, and feeling. As the reading proceeds, attention will be fixed on the reverberations or implications that result from fulfillment or frustration of those expecta­ tions. (Rosenblatt, 1978, p. 54)

Rosenblatt asserts that the reading of literature is often taught as a "spectator sport," with students merely watching the teacher respond in what they take to be the "correct" fashion (Rosenblatt, 1983, p. 60). The treatment of reading in other disciplines proceeds in much the same way (Vacca, 1986). Such teaching is the result of theorizing that the meaning resides in the text rather than being created anew every time the text is read. Readers who believe that an authority must tell them what is in a text develop little confidence in their ability to respond to the ideas they are constructing. The task becomes one of remembering "what the teacher said," rather than relating the reading to any context.

Response Theory

Response theory has grown out of transactional theory as researchers have begun to investigate the nature of the personal reaction to a given text (Odell and Cooper, 1976; Petrosky, 1976). 12

Odell and Cooper begin with Purves' admonition that, "At the center

of the curriculum are not the works of literature...but rather the mind

as it meets the book. The response." The reader skilled in any area

can be regarded as bringing a practiced way of comprehending and

generating a response to each act of reading. Odell and Cooper urge

that teachers leave behind the study of literature that has students

learn facts about it and focus, instead, on their responses to what they

read. While some responses may be more complete and informed than

others, an important role of the teacher is to attempt to understand why

and how the student responds as she or he does.

Using a system built on Purves' content analysis categories, Odell

and Cooper report the "extended responses" to three novels a student

chose to read, and then they categorize those statements as personal,

descriptive, interpretive, or evaluative. Next they chart the responses

according to a more complex scheme which includes focus, contrast,

classification, change, physical context, time, and logical sequence.

Although they have only a record of what he wrote about his responses,

they conclude that they have evidence of what the student did and did not do in responding to the three novels. The processes may be so

complex, however, that even he might be unaware of certain of his stra­

tegies. While this is a problem with this kind of research, no one has yet found a way to overcome it.

Odell and Cooper suggest that by keeping track of a student's responses to literature over a period of time, progress made as a reader

can be measured. 13

Petrosky (1976) reports on the responses of two adolescent girls to their reading of Young Adult fiction, The Pigman and Go Ask Alice, as well as to Thematic Perception Plates (a set of pictures designed to evoke emotional responses).

Petrosky speculates that there might be a developmental sequence through which students go in responding to literature. He suggests that discussions of literature should start with initial free responses and be followed by higher level analyses. Such analyses, he argues, could be improved if the students respond to and hold in common the definitions of literary terms, which is to say that he argues that students should be taught the paradigms of a literary community. He suggests that for instructional purposes personal discussion should precede analytical discussion. Such discussion allows the reader to read within a context.

A dramatic example of the importance of the reader's response is related by Jane Yolen (Yolen, 1985). She tells of a terminally ill child who had one of Yolen's stories read to her a few days before she died. In the child's life the story had a particular meaning, a meaning

Yolen had not intended, yet a meaning supportable by the life of the child and by the words of the text. As Yolen describes it:

The story I wrote was not exactly the story that Ann Marie took with her. But she took it with her because she needed it and I am not so selfish about the meaning of my tales to deny all the Ann Maries of the world that garment for the trip (Yolen, 1985, p. 592)

Yolen concludes,

Just as the writer brings a lifetime to the creation of the tale, so the reader carries along a different lifetime with which to recreate it. Even the author may reread her own story days, weeks, months later and understand it on another level. (Yolen, 1985, p. 590)

A transactional theory is particularly useful in understanding the student reader. In order for unskilled readers to develop methods which will serve them as they move through the elementary levels of various fields, they must have wide experience with texts which are accessible to them in the world as they experience it. The process of reading is most successful— for skilled as well as for unskilled readers— when it fosters the development of individually meaningful questions.

If imaginative writing springs from such reading, it is even more successful. According to Rosenblatt, "They [students] will discover that problems of form and artistry are not separable from the problem of clarifying the particular sense of life or the particular human mood that the work of art is destined to embody" (Rosenblatt, 1983, p. 48).

She, too, suggests that discussion sessions begin and be based on re­ sponses the students write to a work. Even if such responses are imma­ ture, they signal the only possible starting point, and they become an essential part of the teaching materials (Rosenblatt, 1983, p. 51). The teacher must likewise begin efferent work with the backgrounds the students bring to their reading.

Schema Theory

Transactional theory and response theory offer explanations which are very close to the descriptions of human mental processes offered by psychologists working with schema theory (Anderson, 1985, 1977; 15

Bransford and Nitsch, 1985; Neisser, 1976; Rumelhart, 1984). Each reading of a text is a one time occurrence which cannot be duplicated exactly by another reader or even by the same reader during a subsequent reading.

Bartlett (1932) first proposed a schema theory using the words of

Sir Henry Head, "Every recognizable (postural) change enters into con­ sciousness already charged with its relation to something that has gone before, just as on a taxi meter the distance is presented to us already transformed into shillings and pence." (Bartlett, 1932, p. 199).

Through analysis of retellings of stories given to subjects whose cul­ tural background was not the same as that of the stories, Bartlett was able to demonstrate how readers employ their existing schemata to inter­ pret the stories and to reconstruct their memories of the stories years later. Repeated recollections of the stories tended to retain their original form but to be cast increasingly into the cultural context of the rememberer (Bartlett, 1932, pp. 93-94).

Rumelhart described a schema as a "data structure" which represents stored knowledge of a concept and includes the networks which relate it to other data structures. Such structures are prototypes of the con­ cepts represented and, when they are needed, particular schemata are brought to bear on the problem under consideration (Rumelhart, 1984, pp.

2-3). These schemata are the essence of the experiences, knowledge, and feelings to which Rosenblatt refers. As comprehension progresses, hypotheses about meaning are generated and tested, retained or rejected. 16

If the comprehender's background knowledge does not parallel the author's, then something else is comprehended (Rumelhart, 1977); a very different hypothesis finds its support in the memory of the reader.

Bransford and Johnson (1972) and Anderson et al. (1977) have demon­ strated this effect well with ingenious experiments in which subjects have been given paragraphs without any conventional context, paragraphs with a definite, but unspecified context, and paragraphs which fit several contexts. Comprehension of each of the paragraphs is dependent upon any reader's prior knowledge.

Rumelhart (1977) characterizes schemata as data structures which exist in various forms, contain variables, embed within each other, operate as generic concepts at various levels of abstraction, and represent knowledge rather than definitions.

Anderson (1985) proposes six functions of schemata in helping the skilled reader make sense of text:

1. A schema provides ideational scaffolding for assimilating text information. 2. A schema facilitates selective allocation ofattention. 3. A schema enables inferential elaboration. 4. A schema allows orderly searches of memory. 5. A schema facilitates editing and summarizing. 6. A schema permits inferential reconstruction, (p. 376-377)

Neisser (1976) defines schema in this way:

A schema is that portion of the entire perceptual cycle which is internal to the perceiver, modifiable by experience, and somehow specific to what is being perceived. The schema accepts information as it becomes available at sensory sur­ faces and is changed by that information; it directs movements and exploratory activities that make more infor­ mation available, by which it is further modified, (p. 54)

A schema influences comprehension and is simultaneously being influenced and modified by it. Neisser does not claim to know how a 17 person's first schema comes into being, but asserts that "schemata develop with experience" through systematic construction of a world view. It is the ability to explore and organize new information in order to get even more information that is inherent in human infants

(Neisser, 1976, p. 61-63).

Skilled chess players provide an expert example of this ability.

They can predict the course of entire matches on the basis of the same visual information to which anyone looking at the board has access

(Chase and Simon, 1973). Their skill lies in their accumulated know­ ledge of the rule-governed constraints on permissible moves in the game, resulting in a broad repertoire of schemata which guides their comprehension.

Perceivers do not go beyond the information given, but cultures go beyond the elementary contingencies of nature to make additional information available. The rules of chess do not control the master's perception; they make it possible by giving him something to perceive. (Neisser, p. 181)

This analysis of what the. chess master does, is applicable to all comprehension. A schema guides the attention to particular sites of information and the characteristics of the information change the state of the schema in order to provide guidance for the next allocation of attention (Neisser, p. 181). Schemata are self-generating in both the long and the short term. The resulting creation and acquisition of new schemata can be termed "learning."

The hypothesis that a relevant schema facilitates selective allocation of the reader's attention is useful in considering the differences between what a skilled reader and an inexperienced reader 18 can do. If we observe a skilled reader of a particular content and an inexperienced reader of that content, we will find differences in what it is they construe to be important. Anderson suggests that these two readers may be working out of different schemata. In Kuhn's terms, they are working out of different levels of mastery of the relevant paradigms. The skilled reader knows what to look for and how to ignore the irrelevant and/or non-essential. Inexperienced readers cannot be so efficient. Since they cannot determine the relative importance of the information competing for their attention, they do not know where to allocate their attention.

The Connection to a Philosophical Interpretation

Thorndike (1917) compared comprehending text to solving a mathematic problem. The similarities of his description of the comprehension process to the more recent views of Rosenblatt and schema theory are readily apparent.

Understanding a paragraph is like solving a problem in mathematics. It consists in selecting the right elements of the situation and putting them together in the right'relations, and also with the right amount of weight or influence or force for each. The mind is assailed as it were by every word in the paragraph. It must select, repress, soften, emphasize, correlate and organize, all under the influence of the right mental set of purpose or demand. (Thorndike, p. 329)

Skilled readers usually respond according to particular methods which have become routine to them. For purposes of acquiring understanding of a new concept there may be an internalized model for comprehending, and, in light of the discussion of paradigms, it may be subject-specific. Furthermore, in order to understand a text, it is 19

necessary to believe "that a particular domain is indeed comprehensible"

and to possess "criteria for evaluating the adequacy of one’s present

understanding" (Bransford and Nitsch, 1985, p. 1050). Given that

confidence, motivation, and ability, a skilled reader,

...may first need to view explicitly domain Y from the perspective of an already known X. Gradually, the need to recall X in order to use concept Y may be eliminated. The live metaphor through which we initially understood a situation gradually becomes dead. (Bransford and Nitsch, 1985)

Bransford and Franks (1976) term this the stage setting function

of knowledge. Through this process the comprehender can move from dependence on the present situation and its context to a decontext- ualized use of language to represent meaning. Once the previously unknown concept (Y) becomes familiar, it is no longer necessary for the known concept (X) to act as the cue for it, but Y cannot become familiar without the use of X. Metaphor, then, can be used to come to a new understanding when the learner lacks the background for interpreting a literal statement of new information. In order to bridge the gap from new to old, the learner needs a place to make such a connection, and metaphor "encourages listeners to restructure their articulations of domain Y from the perspective of domain X" (Bransford and Franks, 1976).

It should be apparent that the aspects of transactional, response, schema, and philosophical theories of comprehension discussed in this chapter converge on the prediction that a metaphor can facilitate comprehension of a new idea. In Chapter III the work done on metaphor is discussed in order to prepare for the testing of this prediction. CHAPTER III

THEORIES AND STUDIES OF METAPHOR

Theories of Metaphor

Metaphor has been described traditionally as figurative language useful for comparing two or more things which exist objectively and independently of the comprehender. Theories of metaphor began with

Aristotle who defined a metaphor as a way of comparing two terms

(Ortony, 1975). Richards (1936) introduced the terms ‘'tenor" (the subject or "topic"), "vehicle" (the term which refers to the comparison being made) and "ground" (the commonality between the two terms) in asserting that a metaphor is made up of two terms and the relationship between them. Traditional theories of metaphor include substitution, comparison, and interaction (Black, 1962). The substitution view holds that figurative language is simply put in the place of a literal equivalent. The comparison view is closely related to the substitution view; a special similarity between two or more items is highlighted.

The interaction view is more complex. According to Campbell

(1922), cited in Hesse (1966), the skilled comprehender makes use of metaphorical thinking in working out a new idea, not merely as an aid, but as an integral part of the theory itself. The initial metaphor will always remain an element of the theory. Hesse (1966) suggests that,

The metaphor works by transferring the associated ideas and implications of the secondary to the pri­ mary system. These select, emphasize, or suppress features of the primary; new slants in the primary are illuminated; the primary is "seen through" the frame of the secondary, (pp. 162-163)

20 21

Hesse continues by suggesting that after such a process has taken

place, neither the primary nor the secondary system remains the same.

...they seem to interact and adapt to one another even to the point of invalidating their original literal descriptions if these are understood in their new, post- metaphorical sense, (p. 163)

Hesse is less interested in finding the division between the

metaphoric and the literal than in investigating how meanings interact

and change.

Richards (1936) writes of the interaction view:

Let us consider more closely what happens in the mind when we put together— in a sudden and striking fashion— two things belonging to very different orders of exper­ ience. The most important happenings— in addition to a general confused reverberation and strain— are the mind’s efforts to connect them. The mind is a connecting organ, it works only by connecting and it can connect any two things in an indefinitely large number of different ways. Which of these it chooses is settled by reference to some larger whole or aim, and, though we may not discover its aim, the mind is never aimless. In all interpretations we are filling in connections....(pp. 124-125)

Black argues that the interactive metaphor is superior to both

substitution and comparison metaphors: "To speak of the ’interaction'

of two thoughts 'active together'...is to use a metaphor emphasizing the

dynamic aspects of a good reader's response to a nontrivial metaphor"

(Black, 1962, p. 39). Interactive metaphors serve the particular pur­

pose of causing the reader to make inferences rather than just to react

and so are not expendable from the language as are metaphors of

substitution and comparison which can be replaced by literal language

(Black, 1962).

Hanson (1970) and Hesse (1966) propose the concept of the live metaphor which is important because it suggests more about the workings 22 of the interactive metaphor. For a new idea to be acquired, it must first be viewed from the standpoint of an already held concept (theory, paradigm, schema). This necessary first step provides a bridge from one perspective to another because it represents the commonality between what is known and what is not yet understood. As the new idea takes hold, it may no longer be necessary for the old to be activated in order to think about it.

The history of science is replete with examples of such metaphors.

Albert Einstein is reported to have worked out his understanding of light waves by imagining himself riding one through space while looking back over his shoulder at the next one (John-Steiner, 1985). Barbara

Mcclintock, the geneticist, revealed a similar approach, "...when I look at a cell, I get down in that cell and look around" (Keller, 1983, p.69).

Interaction Theory and Transactional Theory

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) agree with Hesse concerning the very important role that metaphor plays in human thought processes, but on the basis of different grounding. Lakoff, a linguist, and Johnson, a philosopher, react against Hesse's essentially positivistic stance in their view that "truth [understanding] is always relative to a conceptual system that is defined in large part by metaphor" (Lakoff and

Johnson, 1980, p. 159). Their interpretation forms part of a newly emerging transactional and organismic view which includes Rosenblatt's work as well as the work of theorists in chemistry, physics, and biology

(Weaver, 1985). 23

This view suggests that the metaphor works, in much the way paradigms and schemata have been described as working, to enable comprehenders to "create a reality rather than simply to give us a way of conceptualizing a preexisting reality" (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.

144). Just as the physicist has learned that the very act of observa­ tion changes that which is being observed and has begun to view the universe as "a dance of transient forms that sparkle in and out of existence," so may meaning be viewed as being created anew with each encounter with text and as product of the sum total of the compre- hender's life experience (Weaver, 1985).

Lakoff and Johnson's argument fits well with the interactive view.

They hold that people structure their current conception of reality through the use of metaphor in order to make sense of their experience and to keep it within the bounds of their own culture. For example, they point out that people use many war-related metaphorical expressions in speaking of arguments, whether of the violent or of the intellectual nature: "Your claims are indefensible." "He attacked every weak point in my argument" (Lakoff and Johnson, p. 4). Such use of metaphor becomes so conventional that people scarcely notice its metaphoric quality. Hesse would hold that something of the original thought always remains as part of the idea, that which is termed by the psychologist a schema. It is a certain kind of society which describes its intellectual thought in terms of its similarity to war instead of picking up on its similarity to an activity such as the dance (Lakoff and Johnson, p. 5). People create metaphors to fit their experience, while at the same time their understanding of their experience is being shaped by conven­ tional metaphors which society has embraced. These metaphors are

"alive" in the sense that they are the metaphors people live by (Lakoff and Johnson, p. 55). This differs from the interpretation that the live metaphor gradually falls away as it is no longer needed in thinking of the idea to which it was originally attached. However, this distinc­ tion may not be a serious problem in bringing the two views together.

Bransford appears to call the conventional metaphors "dead," in order to say that people use them without identifying and thinking about their literal and original meaning or about their relationship to other meta­ phors. Lakoff and Johnson attribute this effect to the functioning of unnamed and unexamined cultural assumptions. When people think about the similarities between the language they use and the experiences they and others have, they acquire new insights into the workings of their cultural communities.

Coherence is sought between and among the metaphors used often and a network of relations arises as a personal and societal world view. A metaphor may share only one aspect of an experience, or it may play upon that one aspect by extension to other, unused aspects of the experience or idea, or it may highlight the connection between previously uncon­ nected ideas (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 53), thus allowing the trans­ fer of a new idea from one person to another. Swanson (1980) and Petrie

(1979) both suggest that the metaphor comes to the comprehender as an unexpected misstatement which must be detected in the process of meta­ comprehension. The process of linking old and new information is a 25

process of achieving equilibrium by acting to correct a problem. A sys­

tem for categorization develops which allows comprehension to take

place.

The natural question to ask, then, is whether people actually think and act in terms of consistent sets of metaphors. A special case where they do is in the formulation of scientific theories, say, in biology, psychology, or linguistics. Formal scienti­ fic theories are attempts to consistently extend a set of ontological and structural metaphors. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 220)

Their answer:

...understanding emerges from interaction, from constant negotiation with the environment and other people...We understand experience metaphorically when we use a gestalt from one domain of experience to structure experience in another domain (p. 230)

Ortony (1975) discusses three hypotheses for the role of metaphor

in promoting learning: 1. the compactness thesis, 2. the vividness

thesis, and 3. the inexpressibility thesis. The compactness thesis

posits that a function of metaphor is the efficient transfer of a known

body of information to an unknown context which creates new information.

The vividness thesis accounts for the memorability and impact of a metaphor through imagery. The inexpressibility thesis argues that some meanings cannot be expressed without metaphor.

Ortony (1978) holds that the necessary and sufficient conditions for metaphor include: 1. it is textually anomalous, and 2. there exists the possibility of resolving the tension resulting from the anomaly.

Conclusion

Transactional theory, interaction theory, and schema theory provide complementary explanations of what may take place between that which is 26

already known, which is used in the metaphor, and that which is to be

connected to it. Transactional theorists doubt there is one objective

reality to be discovered and schema theorists doubt that the

comprehender searches, memory for a stored trace which matches the infor­

mation coming in. Bransford and Franks (1976) suggest "...stored struc­

tures which represent general properties of, and relations among, con­

cepts and rules which can 'use' these structures to make inferences by

manipulating and transforming these structures" (p. 97). A metaphor,

then, is a schema complete with rules for interaction with an existing

schema whose value is dependent upon the context at the moment of its

use. Its use can create new schemata.

Studies of Metaphor

Developmental Studies

»rm By the time children reach fifth or sixth grade, they encounter metaphors frequently in their school work. Arter (1976) found ten

instances of figurative language per thousand words in social science

text books written for those grade levels and 2.5 instances per thousand

words for texts written for earlier grades. Whether or not children can

understand figurative language is, therefore, an important pedagogical

question.

Some investigations have concluded that such ability does not begin

to emerge until adolescence. Asch and Nerlove (1960) studied children's

use of "double function" words and found that children first develop 27 competence with the literal use of a word such as "sweet" and then later develop competence in using it in a psychological (metaphorical) sense and at that point treat the two meanings as independent of each other.

In their view, it is only later that children understand that the word has a dual role.

By testing 5, 7, and 11 year olds, Billow (1975) concluded that the ability to explain a similarity metaphor (X is a Y) accompanied by pictures increases with age. The ability to explain proportional meta­ phors (X is to A as Y is to B) was reported to correlate with the development of formal operational thought.

Grindstaff and Muller (1975) performed a review of a national study of response to literature in which the subjects were ages nine, thir­ teen, seventeen and adults. The results showed ability increases in understanding metaphor up to the age of seventeen. Forty-five percent of the nine year olds understood all the metaphors presented to them.

That the performance of the adult subjects dropped off was explained by their no longer being in school.

Winner, Rosenstiel, and Gardner (1976) categorized children's responses to metaphors by assigning their explications and answers to multiple choice questions to three stages: magical (a literal interpre­ tation), metonymic-(association of terms), and. primitive metaphoric

(emergence of ability). They reported a "developmental trend toward the appropriate apprehension of metaphor" (p. 289). Prior to age ten, meto­ nymic and primitive metonymic interpretations were frequent. The young­ est children sometimes interpreted metaphors as describing magical situations. The ten year olds offered the most inappropriate interpre­ 28 tations, suggesting they were exhibiting "the operations of metaphor before they could use words with precision" (p. 296). Fourteen year olds could "characterize the metaphoric relation in a variety of ways" (p.

296), while most ten year olds could only identify one.

Siltanen (1981) attempted to identify significant differences in adults' and children's abilities to comprehend metaphors by coding open- ended responses as 1. no comprehension, 2. literal interpretation, 3. perceptually based, 4. conceptually based, and 5. perceptually/concept­ ually based. Five year olds were found to understand easy metaphors through perceptually based interpretations and six to eight year olds understood easy to moderate metaphors in the same way. Nine to eleven year olds use perceptually based interpretations and some conceptually based interpretations in understanding metaphors ranging from easy to difficult. Older subjects (twelve and up) demonstrated more conceptually based interpretations over the range of metaphors.

These developmental studies can be criticized on several grounds.

Ortony, Reynolds, and Arter (1978) point out that the double entry words used by Asch and Nerlove (1960) may be perceived by children as having separate lexical entries, i.e. as being two distinct words. The psycho­ logical referents of the words apply to concepts which children may not yet understand. Therefore, the study may not describe the comprehension of metaphor.

Ortony et al. (1978) question the materials used in the Billow

(1975) study. Some of the metaphors used were obscure to Ortony and his team, and it should not seem strange that children could not understand them as well as adults could. In the case of the Winner et al (1976) 29 study, they suggest that context and pre-existing knowledge were not controlled for and that the use of isolated sentences instead of stories could have contributed to the results.

Ortony et al. (1978) concluded: "The possibility therefore exists that the decrements in performance for young children could be largely accounted for by a paucity of relevant experience of the world and of the use of metaphors rather than by the constraining influences of cognitive development" (p. 930). Gaus (1979) reported that "When children are presented metaphors in their natural context, metaphors do not impede comprehension, and in one study, metaphors facilitated comprehension" (p. 1).

A most compelling explanation, then, for the general increase in the ability to comprehend metaphors as one grows older is the addition of life experience, knowledge, and ability to use language. Reynolds and Ortony (1980) report a study in which 411 elementary children read short prose passages and chose the best continuation sentence from four alternatives. The correct response involved a simile (an explicit comparison) or a metaphor (an implicit comparison). Children selected more explicit than implicit targets and performed better when the referent of the metaphoric comparison was specific than when it had to be inferred. They concluded that "general language variables having no particular connection to metaphorical language" (p. 1) can confound such research.

Gentner and Stuart (1984) studied developmental changes in child­ ren's fluency in interpreting metaphors. Across groups of five and six year olds, nine and ten year olds, and college students they found that 30 relationality of the responses increased with age while attributionality did not. A relationality metaphor was defined as one in which the predicates shared by base and target were relations (ex.: both help people get well). An attributional metaphor was defined as one in which the shared predicates were attributes (ex.: both are round). Increase in the ability to interpret relational metaphors "may be due in part to the accretion of knowledge" (p. 1).

Evidence of an ability to comprehend and use metaphors early in life has been gathered by several investigators. Sweet (1974) looked for occurrences of metaphor in the writing of poetry, descriptions, and stories of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children. While more non­ literal language was present in the children's poems and descriptions than in their stories, there was no significant increase in metaphor inclusion with age.

Gardner (1974) found that even preschoolers can grasp metaphors insofar as the elements are within their life experience. The ability to use metaphors more generally comes with additional experience and world knowledge which is acquired with age. Gardner presented -five pairs of polar adjectives as stimulus items to be mapped onto diverse domains to 101 subjects aged 3.5, seven, 11.5, and nineteen years. Evidence of competence with metaphor was defined as the ability to transfer "sets of antonyms or 'polar adjectives,' whose literal denotation within a domain is known, onto a domain where they are not ordinarily employed" (p. 85).

Gardner associated the older subjects' better performance on the tasks with their greater knowledge of physical laws, cultural conventions, their possession of a wider variety of connotative meanings for words, and their ability to find abstract connecting terms. 31

Gentner (1977) had children of age 4 to 5.5 years and college

sophomores map facial features and body parts onto pictures of objects

and found no difference in the two group's abilities to do so. This

evidence supports "the hypothesis that such ability is present at the

outset of language use" (p. 1038).

Honeck, Sowry, and Voegtle (1978) reported a study in which it was

demonstrated that seven, eight, and nine year olds could report their

understanding of proverbs. Iran-Nejad (1980) tested deaf children from

nine to seventeen years old and reported that they "clearly demonstrated

their ability to understand novel metaphorical use of English" (p. 1)

despite their language deficits due to deafness. Waggoner, Meese, and

Palerma (1985) reported that "Recall of metaphors was equal to recall of

literal statements with comparable meanings by seven, nine, and eleven

year old children" (p. 1157).

The conclusion suggested by the aforementioned findings is con­ gruent with schema theory: all understanding is constrained or enhanced

by the background knowledge of the comprehender. While the ability to

comprehend, use, and generate metaphors may be possessed at the outset of language learning, and may even be facilitative of language learning, such ability is useful only to the extent that the content of the meta­ phor is available to the. comprehender. As a person grows older, the

content available for making interpretations increases as experiences with the world and with ideas are layered on. 32

Studies of the Processes Adults Use in Comprehending Metaphors

Stage Models

Brewer, Harris, and Brewer (1976) used proverbs to test a two step process: 1. a literal interpretation is attempted, and 2. the figurative meaning is ascertained. Subjects were instructed to read two sentences, come to an understanding of them and then decide whether their meanings were the same or different. When Original Proverbs were presented first (before a literal paraphrase) it took subjects less time to understand the figurative meaning. One explanation of this is that in the condition when the Original Proverb was presented first, both figurative and literal meanings were available. Brewer et al. regarded this as support for the hypothesis that literal comprehension precedes figurative comprehension and stated their position that the findings should generalize to metaphors.

In an informal, subjective evaluation Osborn and Ehninger (cited in

Reinsch, 1971) described comprehension of metaphor as occurring across three mental events: 1. discovery of an error— defined as an inability to process the words literally, 2. puzzlement and recoil— defined as experiencing dissonance and a rejection of the literal, and 3. re­ solution— defined as the discovery of similarities between the topic and vehicle.

More recently, Glucksberg, Gildea, and Bookin (1982) have tested a similar three-stage model: 1. derivation of the literal meaning, 2. a testing of the literal meaning against the context, and 3. the seeking 33 of a nonliteral meaning in cases where the literal meaning does not make sense. They presented subjects with a series of statements such as

"Some jobs are jails," and found that when metaphoric interpretations of literally false statements were available, subjects took more time to decide that such sentences were literally false. They concluded that,

"People seem to process both the nonliteral and literal meanings of sentences in the same ways, and at the same time" (p. 85). Even when directed to judge a sentence's literal truth or falsity, subjects were unable to ignore its metaphoric interpretation.

Janus (1983) also investigated a three stage model of metaphor processing which posits that the literal interpretation must first be ascertained. Longer processing time of metaphors over literals might be taken as support for such a model, but in a second experiment fixed states could not be delineated, and Janus questioned the three stage model. In a later study Janus and Bever (1985) used reaction times for phrases which enabled them to identify the effect of metaphor processing taking more time. They interpreted such evidence to be support for the serial processing of metaphors and assert that the same machinery (both cognitive and inferencing) is used in literal and metaphoric processing, but that the processing may be qualitatively different.

Taken together, these studies suggest the existence of specifiable cognitive steps through which the comprehender proceeds, perhaps unconsciously. 34

Salience of Attributes

Based on Tulving’s principle of encoding specificity (Thompson and Tulving, 1971), Verbrugge and McCarrell (1977) predicted that the ground would be an effective cue for the recall of metaphors. They defined metaphors as "comparisons that are comprehended when the unex­ pressed ground between the topic and the vehicle is inferred" (p. 931).

Two lists of fourteen metaphors and similes with each list containing the same topics but varied vehicles were given by audiotape to subjects.

For example, List A contained "Billboards are warts on the landscape," and List B, "Billboards are yellow pages on the highway." Subjects received a booklet of written prompts in the form of topics, vehicles, and relevant and irrelevant grounds and were asked to remember the original. While topics and vehicles produced the highest recall, ten or fourteen sentences were recalled with the relevant ground prompts, suggesting that subjects infer the relevant ground of the metaphor when they try to understand it. They concluded: 1. that the interaction between the topic and the vehicle in producing a pertinent ground rules out an associative view of the process, 2. that adults easily and consistently comprehend metaphors, 3. that an unstated comparison between the topic and the vehicle must be inferred in comprehending a metaphor, and 4. that in the comprehension of a metaphor some qualities of the topic receive attention causing other qualities to be ignored.

Tourangeau (1978) defined metaphor as "seeing a concept from one class in terms of a concept from another class" and studied "the degree to which two concepts occupy dissimilar positions with respect to their 35

category or domain (within-domain distance), and the degree to which

categories themselves are dissimilar (between-domain distance)" (p. 1).

Groups were asked to rate the aptness and the comprehensibility of

metaphors. The results showed that aptness had a positive relationship

to between domain distance and a negative relationship to within domain

distance, but no relationship to overall distance. Comprehensibility

was related to aptness. The results were interpreted as support for a

domains interaction view of metaphor.

In another study of the salience of the attributes focused upon in

a metaphor, Baldwin, Luce, and Readence (1982) asked fifth grade stu­

dents to interpret novel metaphors, to list the semantic attributes of

metaphoric vehicles, and then to reinterpret the metaphors following

prompting with semantic attributes. They found "a high correlation

between subjects' ability to list salient attributes and ability to

provide standard interpretations for metaphors and similes" (p. 528).

Readence (1983) found word knowledge to be critical to the inter­

pretation of metaphors. Not knowing the salient attribute the metaphor

capitalized on resulted in an inability to make use of the metaphor.

For that reason, Readence argued that merely having students practice

the interpretation of metaphors will not prepare them for interpreting novel metaphors.

It is clear that the elements of the metaphor as well as their ground must be within the comprehender's experience. Otherwise, the metaphor is useless and the ability to use metaphor is useless as well. 36

Effects of Context

Several studies of the context in which a metaphor occurs have

been performed. Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, and Arter (1978) measured

the response time for understanding target sentences or phrases in terms

of a preceding context. In the first experiment subjects took signifi­

cantly longer to understand a metaphor rather than a literal statement

only in the condition where the statements were short. They inter­

preted this to mean that appropriate schemata were unavailable in short

statements. In the second experiment targets were phrases that could be

given either idiomatic or literal interpretations. The comprehension of

phrases which could be interpreted idiomatically took no longer than the

comprehension of those which could be interpreted literally. In some

instances the idioms were interpreted more quickly. Ortony et al.

conclude that support exists for a view that "contextually generated

expectations" (p. 465) underlie the process of understanding both

literal and figurative language.

End and Danks (1982) studied the effectiveness of priming on the

comprehension of metaphors by using the first of several metaphors

having common ground to facilitate the comprehension of successive

related metaphors and found priming to be helpful in the process.

Cadogan (1985) attempted to create contextual expectations of

figurative language in order to improve the performance of elementary

school children on the comprehension of metaphor. Third and fourth grade subjects showed improvement, but fifth graders did not. 37

Henao Alvarez (1983) found that American and Colombian sixth grade

students were able to perform best with their own country’s culturally-

specific metaphors and attributed this to a schema theoretical view

which emphasizes cultural influences on comprehension.

"Contextually generated expectations," then, operate in interpre­

ting both figurative and literal language. Such results give further

support to schema theory as well as to reader responsibility. Meaning

is dependent on what is in the comprehender's experience.

The Effect of Metaphor on Recall

Yarbrough and Gagne (1987) studied the effect on recall of metaphors embedded in text by transforming a literal passage into a

metaphoric passage, giving both passages to college students, and test­

ing their recall on the basis of the number of idea units included in

their recall protocols. Their findings indicated that more was remem­

bered in the literal condition and when target information was located

higher in the hierarchy of the passage. The finding of decreased memory

for the metaphoric passage may be attributed to the manner in which the metaphoric passage was created which resulted in a very odd sort of

text even though each of the metaphors had been validated as good meta­

phors. In the studies of the effect of metaphors on the recall of text,

the Yarbrough and Gagne study is the only one which indicates that the

presence of metaphors is a detrimental factor.

Arter (1976) gave passages containing metaphors and passages with­

out metaphors to sixth graders at three levels of verbal ability. She 38 gave them a multiple choice test, asked them to rate the passages for interest, and collected free recalls which she scored according to the number of idea units they contained in common with the original text.

She found a generally facilitative effect for the metaphor passage for the low verbal ability subjects on the incidental fact questions con­ tained in the multiple choice test. Passages containing metaphors were rated as more important than passages without and the more highly rated the passage the more likely its recall.

Sixth grade suburban children who read two unfamiliar passages recalled metaphors better than literal paraphrases of the same informa­ tion (Pearson and others, 1979). Third graders who read a more familiar passage showed no difference in recalling metaphors and their literal paraphrases. For both groups who read both familiar and unfamiliar metaphorical and literal passages there was a significant interaction between passage familiarity and passage version. The conclusions of the study include: "1. children's recall of metaphor is always as good and often better than their recall of comparable literal material, 2. when passage material is familiar, metaphors are no more salient than their literal counterparts, and 3. whatever metaphor effects exist appear limited to their surface structure boundaries" (p. 1). The authors suggest that metaphors may promote better recall because they are more vivid rather than because they elicit better comprehension.

Petrun (1981) Investigated the processing differences between metaphoric and literal versions of the same sentences by showing forty- eight pairs of sentences (a stimulus sentence and a correct or incorrect paraphrase) to thirty-nine college students. The results were inter­ 39 preted as evidence that more cognitive effort Is required for analyzing a metaphor than a literal. Since sentences were remembered more easily when they were presented metaphorically than literally, this is regarded as support for the thesis that the amount of cognitive effort expended during comprehension is significantly related to memory performance, i.e., information conveyed through metaphor is more memorable because interpreting it has required more processing.

Reynolds et al. (1982) had seventy-one college students read eight short stories and rate their quality and effectiveness. Half of the stories included metaphors and half literals. Subjects were given a delayed or immediate cued recall test and scoring was based on idea units in gist or verbatim form. The results indicated that the subjects remembered the passages with metaphors better than the literal passages; subjects also demonstrated better memory for the context preceding the metaphors in the metaphor passages.

Burns (1984) compared the effects of analogy-based and conventional lectures on the achievement of biology students in four classes enrolled in a suburban high school. Students' cognitive ability and prior know­ ledge were assessed and their biology grades from the preceding terms were used as covariates. Conclusions included: 1. the analogy method enhanced student achievement, 2. both concrete and transitional formal operational thinkers benefited from the analogy method, 3. transitional formal operational students performed better than concrete students with both treatments, 4. concrete students receiving the analogy method performed better than transitional formal students receiving traditional instruction, 5. students who understood analogies did better than those 40 who did not, and 6. the effects related to treatment were more pro­ nounced when comprehension of the analogies was high.

Given appropriate conditions, then, metaphors can facilitate recall for young children as well as for older students.

The Effect of Metaphor on Comprehension

Two studies that investigated the effect of metaphors on comprehension found no facilitating effect for metaphoric versions of textual prose compared to literal versions. Elam (1979) gave sixth grade students metaphoric and literal versions of four short, informa­ tional passages and assessed their comprehension with multiple choice questions. The results indicated that the presence of metaphors neither facilitated nor hindered the comprehension of the text; this outcome could be due to the relative ease and familiarity with which the stu­ dents read the texts.

Cunningham (1976) used cloze testing with 193 sixth grade students in order to measure the comprehension of metaphoric and literal pas­ sages, and found evidence of better comprehension for the literal pas­ sages. This result may, in fact, indicate more about the difficulty in predicting the topics and vehicles of metaphors when they are incomplete as in a cloze test than it does about the comprehensibility of metaphors themselves.

Given the results in the aforementioned studies, these findings do not seem to fit and, indeed, would contradict the predictions schema theory and reader response theory would suggest. 41

The Effects of Instruction on the Ability to Use Metaphor

Horne (1966) found that teaching children to use metaphors

resulted In Increased comprehension of metaphors In their reading*

Pollio and Pollio (1974) also found instruction to be effective. Their

study compared a commercial program with author-made lessons and used

composing tasks, elaboration of comparisons, and the generation of

multiple uses of objects as dependent variables. The results showed

that: 1. children used metaphoric language as early as grade three, 2.

children used more dead than novel metaphors in composing and in de­

scription of multiple uses, 3. children used more novel than dead

metaphors in comparisons, and 4. this pattern changed with grade level,

achievement level, and socioeconomic status.

By testing 319 elementary children in Harlem on a figurative lan­

guage test given before and after instruction (a four month interval),

Ortony (1985) was able to demonstrate that special instruction improved

figurative language comprehension. He also reported that children who

frequently engaged in sounding (playing the dozens), a street game,

comprehended figurative language better than those who did not. This

result could not be accounted for by differences in general language ability.

Readence, Baldwin, and Head (1986) explored the efficacy of in­

struction with third grade children in processing metaphor. Their

experiments validated process instruction over traditional basal reader instruction and brought focus on the salience imbalance hypothesis

(Ortony et al., 1985). 42

Such findings call into question some of the developmental studies.

The children who performed less well in their understanding and use of metaphors may have simply been untaught about metaphors or inexperienced in their context rather than developmentally unready to process metaphors.

Conclusion

The comprehension and use of a metaphor is a complex process, one that continues to develop throughout a person's life. The aforemen­ tioned studies make it clear that children can use metaphors early in life if they understand the word or words used in the vehicle and that as general background knowledge and life experience increase the ability to use metaphors increases. Metaphor has been shown to have a positive effect on recall, but not on comprehension. Because it has been demon­ strated that children can benefit from instruction in the use of meta­ phor, it is important to test further the prediction that metaphor can facilitate the comprehension of a new concept. If it can be shown that metaphor can play a role in the learning of a new idea, then a powerful teaching technique can be explored. CHAPTER IV

THE PROBLEM AND THE METHODOLOGY

Methodology

Two naturally occurring passages and an artificially constructed passage which were novel to the reader in some way, either because they described an unfamiliar concept, or because they were removed from the reader in time or style, were presented in one of three ways to readers fitting certain criteria. In order to control for prior knowledge, readers were asked after they had completed their task whether the content was familiar or unfamiliar to them. Responses of those who indicated prior contact with the material were not included in the sta­ tistical analysis.

The texts presented to subjects were of three subject types. The first, designated the science paragraph, was taken from a college-level biology text (Sherman and Sherman, 1985), and described two important aspects of the genetic code. The second, designated the artificial paragraph, was an artificially constructed passage which described the steps in an unspecified process which was used in an experiment invol­ ving memory processes (Bransford and Johnson, 1972). The artificial text was used in order to study the differences, if any, in results obtained using both natural and artificial texts. The third text, designated the literary paragraph, consisted of two paragraphs from an essay by Henry David Thoreau (Thoreau, 1842) in which he treated the subjects of society and nature.

43 Subjects were freshman students at Denison University in Honors classes and in regular Freshman Studies classes and several professors at Denison as well; thus, the responses of two kinds of novices as well as experts reading in and outside of their fields were studied. Honors students are designated upon admission as being exceptionally able as demonstrated by criteria including an S.A.T. verbal score of 600 or higher, high school grade point average of 3.5 or higher, high school class ranking in the top ten percent, and recommendations from high school teachers. Students who earn a 3.5 average during the first semester of their freshman year at Denison are invited to enroll in

Honors classes their second semester.

Freshman Honors classes and Freshman Studies classes were chosen randomly to participate in Part I or Part II of the study through con­ sulting a table of random numbers. Letters were written to the profes­ sors of each of the classes requesting a class session during which the students would receive the information that the study concerned the reading comprehension of college students and then would receive the texts to read and time to respond to them in writing (Part I) or would have an opportunity to volunteer for an individual reading time (Part

II).

A variation within each condition was constructed for the three paragraph conditions mentioned above: the science paragraph, the artifi­ cial paragraph, the literary paragraph. Literal passages were presented in their entirety to subjects from each of the three groups. One third of the subjects received a metaphoric statement designed to set forth the central idea of the passage before they read the passage (the 45 metaphor condition). Another third received a literal statement before reading (the literal condition). The remaining third did not receive a . priming statement (the neither condition). The metaphors were derived by asking experts about proposed statements. The metaphor chosen for the genetic code paragraph came from another biology test (Yoxen, 1983), the metaphor for the artificial paragraph was suggested by a discussion of it by Bransford and Johnson (1972), and the metaphor for the Thoreau paragraphs was inferred from the passage. A Denison University professor of biology and a Denison University professor of English agreed that the metaphors were appropriate.

Part I.

Of the four Honors classes being offered, two were able to accommo­ date the investigator by allowing time for an explanation and opportu­ nity for students to sign up to participate individually in reading and responding to the texts. Students who volunteered came to the investi­ gator's office, received written instructions and the chance to ask for clarification of them, and then went into a room by themselves to com­ plete the task. Two Honors classes used class time for the task. Of the five Freshman Studies classes asked to participate, all agreed to do so during class time, and four actually did so. The professor of one of the classes had a family emergency which took him out of the country and canceled several class sessions, thus preventing his students from participating. Four of the Honors and Freshman Studies professors wrote responses to the texts along with their students. Their responses were kept separate. Subjects received a booklet of three passages and were asked to write a summary of the passage on the same page as the passage. Then they were asked to turn the page and respond to a question designed to elicit a summary of the passage from memory. Summaries and summaries from memory were scored by the number of idea units they contained in common with the original passage. Meyer and McKonkie (1973) and Johnson

(1970) used this procedure to arrive at suitable idea units through consultation with expert readers, and it was chosen for the validity it would give the task; with the exception of the artificial paragraph, subjects were to be doing actual academic reading and their responses were to be scored on the basis of expert readers' consensus concerning the main and subordinate ideas in the texts. Four professors of

English, one of philosophy, three of Biology, and one of Chemistry wrote outlines of the passages and were then asked to decide whether their understanding of the main and subordinate ideas of the passage was the same as that of the working diagram of the passage constructed by the investigator. Agreement among the expert readers was gained easily, suggesting common expectations for academic reading across the curricu­ lum. Scoring was done by the investigator who scored all the protocols.

Two staff assistants in the Education Department at Denison University scored one third of the protocols randomly selected from each of the subject and condition categories, arriving at an interrater reliability of .99 through using Cronbach's Alpha. An additional score, the total of the summary score and the memory score for each passage, was also calculated. Then the scores for the nine groups were compared in a series of two-way and one-way analyses of variance. 47

Part II

The same literal passages were presented sentence by sentence to

different randomly selected Honors and Freshman Studies classes in

individual sessions which were audiotaped and transcribed. As in the

first condition, approximately one third of the subjects received and

read the agreed-upon metaphor before encountering the passage. Another

third of the subjects received and read a literal statement and the

final third received no statement. After each sentence the subject was

asked to explicate its meaning aloud and then proceed to the reading of

the next sentence. After reading the entire passage the subject turned

the page and answered the memory question aloud. In cases where the

subject received the literal statement or no statement before responding

to the target passage, he or she was then shown the metaphor and asked whether and how it fit with the understanding he or she had of the passage. The resulting protocols were analyzed for evidence of strate­ gies, convergence with theories which describe the processes and stages

involved in using metaphor, and for commonalities within and between groups. Rumelhart (1984) reported the success of this sentence-by-

sentence oral method of collecting information about comprehension processes and found that subjects who read an entire story and then

reported their interpretations varied little in what they reported from the subjects who read and reported line-by-line (in his story each line was a complete sentence). 48

The only discernable difference was that those who gave an interpretation only at the end showed somewhat more varia­ bility in their interpretations. It appears that this re­ sults from more careless reading on the part of the subjects offering an interpretation only at the end. (Rumelhart, 1984)

The "discernable difference" of a more careful reading in compari­ son to the task in Part I is desirable in that it permits greater confi­ dence in the interpretations which can be made from the responses in

Part II.

The experimental packets and the scoring criteria may be found in

Appendix A. CHAPTER V

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Part I

To test the main hypothesis that a metaphor can facilitate the comprehension of an idea new to a student, twelve two-way analyses of variance were performed on the data, four each for summary scores, memory scores, and total scores (summary and memory scores combined).

Each set of four consisted of an analysis of each paragraph type

(science— genetic code, artificial— an unspecified process, and literary— a passage from an essay by Thoreau) as well as an average across paragraphs. Variables in all two-way ANOVA's were class (Honors and Freshman Studies) and condition (metaphor provided before reading, a literal statement provided before reading, or no statement provided before reading.)

The numbers of students in each cell of the design varied for two reasons. First, the population of Honors students is far greater than the population of Freshman Studies students; in a freshman class of

600, approximately one hundred students are designated Honors students.

Therefore, there were fewer students available to become a part of the

Honors sample. Second, the scores of those students who indicated having prior knowledge of a paragraph's content were set aside. The design is set forth in Table 1 which includes the number of subjects per cell of the design who indicated no prior experience with the content of

49 50

Table 1

The Experimental Design and Number of Subjects Per Cell*

Summary Task

Science Paragraph

Metaphor Literal Neither

H 8 6 7 FS 15 9 12

Artificial Paragraph

H 12 8 11 FS 17 17 15

Literary Paragraph

H 9 8 9 FS 15 16 14

Memory Task

Science Paragraph

H 8 7 7 FS 13 9 12

Artificial Paragraph

H 12 9 12 FS 16 17 15

Literary Paragraph

H 9 9 10 FS 14 17 14

* (Subjects who indicated prior knowledge or who omitted the task were not included) 51 each text. The data were subjected to Bartlett's test and were found to have homogeneity of variance In all cases (see Table 2). The Scheffe posthoc test was used to examine all significant _F values.

In the follow-up of significant £ values on the class variable, there was no case in which a statistically significant difference was found between two means on the same paragraph type for H and FS students by applying the Scheffe; statistical differences between the two classes were not large enough, despite a trend in that direction in several cases.

The FS data were then subjected to twelve one-way analyses of variance with condition the independent variable because all differences needed to be examined using the very conservative Scheffe. All H and FS means are graphed together to suggest a trend that cannot be demon­ strated statistically because of small and unequal n's. Inspection of

Figures 1, 2, and 3 will reveal the trend toward a greater distance between means in the literal and neither conditions than in the metaphor condition for the science paragraph.

The results of the one-way analyses of variance give tentative support to the hypothesis that the priming metaphor provides particular facilitation for less expert readers; in this study they are the

Freshman Studies students.

Honors Students

In the written summaries of what they read, the Honors (H) students' scores were not significantly different across conditions Table 2

Homogeneity of Variance Test

Summary

Variable Cochrans Bartlett-Box

Science Paragraph .2461, p=.810 .4982, p=.778 Artificial Paragraph .2400, p=.687 .5497, p=.739 Literary Paragraph .2837, p=.291 1.2139, p=.300

Memory

Science Paragraph .2398, p=.908 .6215, p=.683 Artificial Paragraph .2161, p=1.00 1.0040, p=.414 Literary Paragraph .2921, p=.235 1.0536, p=.384

Total

Science Paragraph .2488, p=.839 .5319, p=.752 Artificial Paragraph .2147, p=1.00 .3482, p=.884 Literary Paragraph .3438, p=.055 1.2034, p=.305 53

Figure la Figure lb Science Paragraph 7 ^ Artificial Paragraph FS

Mean Mean Score Score

Metaphor Literal Neither Metaphor Literal Neither

Figure lc Figure Id Literary Paragraph Means Across Paragraphs

FS - - = » 9 Mean Mean FS Score Score

e te Mtpo Literal NeitherMetaphor Metaphor Literal Neither

Figure 1

Summary Scores 54

Figure 2a ^ u r e 2b Science Paragraph Anmciai paragraph

Mean Mean Score

Metaphor Literal N either MetaphorLiteral Neither

Means Across Paragraphs Literary Paragraph

59- Mean Mean Score Score

M etaphor Literal Neither LiteralMetaphor Neither

Figure 2

Memory Scores 55

Figure 3a FI9uro 3b Science Paragraph muuuiai raragraph 1 14 1 12? 1 Mean Score

Literal Neither M etaphor Litoral N either M etaphor

Figure 3c Figure 3d Literary Paragraph Means Across Paragraphs 1 1

1 10'

Mean Mean Score Score

M etaphor Literal N either M etaphor Literal N either

Figure 3

Total Scores 56

(metaphor, literal, neither) for any of the paragraph types in either the two-way or one-way analyses of variance, suggesting that the literal explanation contained in the target paragraph was accessible to those students in such ways that they could meet their professors' expecta­ tions about what was important in the paragraphs. Two possible inter­ pretations of this result are congruent with schema theory. First, students in the Honors program may indeed have more background knowledge than they admit to having; their criteria for saying that are familiar with a topic may be so stringent that they would have to possess a thorough understanding of the topic in order to claim familiarity with it. A second interpretation would hold that the Honors students have developed process schemata which enable them to behave more nearly like experts than the Freshman Studies students. It might safely be assumed that Honors students have read more and more widely than have Freshman

Studies students. In the reading of a paragraph which is introductory to a field of study, increased familiarity with text may act as a schema which guides the process of selecting and paying attention to important elements of the text.

Freshman Studies Students

Summary Data

In the one-way analysis the Freshman Studies (FS) students' summary scores in the metaphor and literal conditions were found to be signifi­ cantly different for the science paragraph, but not for the artificial 57

or literary paragraphs; this suggests a reliance on the metaphor in the

comprehension of the science paragraph. It may be that the science text

and its format were more novel than the literary passage and its format.

There may have been more to learn in the science paragraph than in the

literary paragraph. The FS students averaged 6.33 idea units on the

science paragraph in the metaphor condition and 4.06 idea units in the

literal condition, 91,2)=3.924, £ <.05, an outcome significant at the

.05 level when tested with the Scheffe.

The eta squared coefficient was .1193, demonstrating that almost

12% of the variance has been explained. The eta squared coefficient can

"be shown to describe the proportion of variance (not just SS variability, but variance) in the dependent variable which is accounted for by the manipulation of the independent variable...Significant effects reported in the educational literature typically do not explain more than 10% of the variance." (Kennedy, 1978)

In the average of the three paragraphs the same relationship was observed. FS students averaged 6.35 in the metaphor condition and 4.50 in the literal condition, _F (1,2)=6.303, £ <.05. The eta squared co­ efficient was .2960. The relevant mean scores are graphed in Figure 1.

The results of the analyses of variance appear in Tables 3-6.

Memory Data

In the memory summaries the results were similar; no significant effects were found for either the artificial paragraph or the literary paragraph. As before, FS students scored higher in the metaphor condi- Table 3

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores In Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Science Paragraph.

Source df MS F

Condition 2 16.719 4.108*

Residual 33 4.070

Total 35 4.793

*P <.05

Table 4

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Artificial Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 1.536 .227

Residual 46 6.765

Total 48 6.547 Table 5

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Literary Paragraph

Source df MSF

Condition 2 5.123 1.493

Residual 42 3.436

Total 44 3.513

Table 6

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Means of Summaries Across Paragraphs

Source df MS F

Condition 2 10.555 5.887

Residual 28 1.793

Total 30 2.377 60

tion than in the literal condition, with averages of 2.73 and .89 idea

units respectively, JF (1,2)=4.986, £ <.05. The Scheffe confirmed the

significance of this difference at the .05 level. The eta squared

coefficient was .1863.

In the average of the three paragraphs, the FS students' scores

were significantly higher in the metaphor condition than in the

literal, 4.30 idea units compared to 2.93 idea units, _F (1,2)=3.662, £

<.05.The relevant mean scores are graphed in Figure 2. The results of

the analyses of variance appear in Tables 7-10.

Total Data

As might be expected, when the combined scores were subjected to

the one-and two-way AN0VA procedures, the results followed the trend

established above. On the science paragraph FS students' scores were

significantly better in the metaphor than in the literal condition, 8.54

idea units compared to 4.94 idea units, £ (1,2)=6.594, £ <.05, confirmed by the Scheffe at the .05 level. The eta squared coefficient was .2800.

Combined scores across paragraphs yielded one significant differ­ ence. FS students' metaphor condition scores were overall quite close to H students' metaphor condition scores with no significant difference emerging, but FS metaphor condition scores differed significantly from

FS literal condition scores, 10.33 idea units to 7.43 idea units, J[

(1,2)=4.653, £ <.05. The eta squared coefficient was .2654. The rele­ vant mean scores are graphed in Figure 3. The results of the analyses of variance appear in Tables 11-14. 61

Table 7

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries from Memory of the Science Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 9.037 3.550*

Residual 31 2.546

Total 33 2.939

*p <.05

Table 8

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries from Memory of the Artificial Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 6.220 2.163

Residual 45 2.876

Total 47 3.019 62

Table 9

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries from Memory of the Literary Paragraph

Source df MSF

Condition 2 1.643 .502

Residual 42 3.273

Total 44 3.199

Table 10

Analysis of Variance of FS Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Means of Summaries from Memory Across Paragraphs

Source df MS F

Condition 2 4.481 2.886

Residual 25 1.553

Total 27 1.770 63

Table 11

Analysis of Variance of FS Total Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Science Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 34.644 6.027*

Residual 31 5.748

Total 33 7.499

*p <.05

Table 12

Analysis of Variance of FS Total Scores in Metaphor, Literal, Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Artificial Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 10.970 .717

Residual 45 15.293

Total 47 15.109 64

Table 13

Analysis of Variance of FS Total Scores in Metaphor, Literal, and Neither Conditions in Summaries of the Literary Paragraph

Source df MS F

Condition 2 7.538 .968

Residual 41 7.790

Total 43 7.778

Table 14

Analysis of Variance of FS Total Scores in Metaphor, Literal, Neither Conditions in Means of Summaries Across Paragraphs

Source df MS F

Condition 2 20.384 4.516*

Residual 25 4.514

Total 27 5.689

*p <.05 65

That the metaphor provided before the science paragraph was an

extended metaphor embedded in a paragraph of approximately the same

length as the target paragraph may provide an explanation for the success of that metaphor in influencing its readers' comprehension.

For the remaining two paragraphs, it might be argued that the support of the metaphor was not needed by most of the students, and thus did not have a strong influence on their comprehension.

In the case of the artificial paragraph, the metaphor was a short statement which included the word bureaucratic, a word that was demon­ strated in Part II of the study to hold little meaning for the students.

This paragraph yielded scores which were remarkably similar between groups and across conditions; even without the metaphoric and literal prompts, subjects were able to summarize and remember the idea units which were judged important. Additionally, students in all conditions in Part II had little difficulty in summoning one or more schemata with which they interpreted the process described in the paragraph. The literary paragraph's metaphor was also a short statement which many students did not seem to need in order to construct a meaning for the paragraphs.

Faculty Readers

Four faculty members who taught the classes which participated in the study agreed to complete the task along with their students. Their scores appear in Tables 15-17. 66

The Metaphor Condition

Table 15

Scores of Faculty Member Without Prior

Knowledge Receiving the Metaphor in Part 1

Summary Memory

Science Paragraph 9*5 *

Artificial Paragraph 3.5 2

Literary Paragraph 7.0 7.5

*did not complete the task

The faculty reader who received the metaphor condition showed no

evidence of using the metaphor in the summary task, but referred to it

in his incomplete memory statement: "A kind of triplet coding relates messages in two different alphabets to fulfill their functions."

Reference to the bureaucracy metaphor ignored by most students in

the artificial paragraph, "Washing clothes is an almost bureaucratic

sort of chore," turned up in the summary task: "Repetition, not innova­

tion, achieves success every time, "aswell as in the memory task,

"Preparation and the proper steps establish the dependable routine for

this Sisyphean chore." 67 The reader offered her own metaphor in her retelling from memory of

the literary paragraph: "Man, rooted in the barren soil of politics and

organization, sickened because he lacks proper nourishment may still

recover if he heeds nature's lesson."

The Literal Condition

Two faculty members received the literal condition.

Table 16

Scores of Faculty Members Without Prior Knowledge

Receiving the Literal Condition in Part I

Summary Memory

Science Paragraph 8, 7 2, 3

Artificial Paragraph *,2 *>4

Literary Paragraph 3.5,** 6.5, **

* did not complete the task

**prior knowledge

Scores of Faculty Member With Prior Knowledge

Receiving the Literal Condition in Part I

Summary Memory

Literary Paragraph 7.5 5 68

For the science paragraph the summary scores, again, are much

higher than the average student's scores, but the memory scores are not

very different. The number of experienced readers is too small to

compare the scores in any meaningful way, but it suggests an area of

investigation. Would the same effect occur if the sample size were

larger?

One of the readers of the science paragraph included the following

comparison in his summary in referring to the concept of sequential

order: "It is as though one were to look at a diamond and a carbon

filter and know that their differences had nothing to do with kind of

material, but only with how it is ordered."

The Neither Condition

One faculty member received the neither condition.

Table 17

Scores of Faculty Member Without Prior Knowledge

Receiving Neither Metaphor Nor Literal Condition in Part I

Summary Memory

Science Paragraph 7 5

Artificial Paragraph 5 2

Literary Paragraph 6 8 69

Conclusion

Across the conditions and paragraph types, experienced readers demonstrated an ability to comprehend the concepts regardless of how they were presented to them. An important behavior of the expert reader appears to be that of generating her or his own comparisons. It appears that the H students are approaching that experienced ability. 70

Part II

Individual sessions were held with Honors and Freshman Studies

students in order to investigate the three hypotheses in a different

way. One Honors student and nine Freshman Studies students received the

metaphor condition, three H and five FS students received the literal

condition, and one H and three FS students received the neither condi­

tion. Whether or not the student had prior knowledge of the subject

matter became very important, particularly for FS students in the meta­

phor condition. The first four FS students in the metaphor condition

had prior experience with the genetic code concept; therefore, five more

FS students were selected to participate on the basis of not having had

contact with information about the genetic code, but fitting the other

criterion of being an FS student.

Students were given the same packets as in Part I, except that the

target paragraphs were printed with four spaces inserted between each of

the sentences as a signal for the student to stop and talk about the

meaning of what he or she had just read. These materials appear in

Appendix A. The student read the material above the line silently in

the two conditions which provided such material (a metaphor in the

metaphor condition and a literal statement in the literal condition),

and then proceeded to the target text. In the neither condition, the student proceeded directly to the target text. Each subject read the

target text aloud sentence by sentence, stopping at the end of each

sentence to explain what he or she thought it meant or what it caused

him or her to think about. This is the summary task which was 71 identified in Fart 1. Then, the subject turned the page and, without looking back at the original paragraphs, responded aloud to a direction designed to elicit a summary from memory. The same directions as in

Part I were used. After completing this routine in the literal and neither conditions, the students were presented with the metaphor and asked whether it altered their understanding of the idea about which they had read.

When students stopped talking because of frustration with the material, or when something in a remark indicated that more information concerning the effect of the metaphor might be forthcoming with further probing, the investigator prompted them with a question.

The oral protocols were transcribed and studied for evidence of patterns of facilitation of comprehension, particularly patterns which would offer explanation of the results which reached statistical signi­ ficance in Part I. Evidence supporting an interaction between the tenor and the vehicle of both the science and the literary metaphor was found in all cases where students did not have prior knowledge of the con­ cepts. It will be argued that such evidence demonstrates how a new idea is mapped upon an already held idea. Expert readers (faculty readers in this study) tend to generate their own comparisons in the absence of explicit comparisons suggesting a higher level comprehension process. H students use an available comparison even when they already have back­ ground knowledge. FS students who do not have background knowledge make use of an available metaphor, but those who have background knowledge ignore it. The expert reader appears to make use of all available information while the novice does not. 72

The Genetic Code Paragraph

The Metaphor Condition

The metaphor presented to students before reading the target para­ graph can be reduced to the statement, "The genetic code is the Morse

Code of genetics." Genetic code is the tenor and Morse Code is the vehicle of the metaphor. The ground is the system of ordering informa­ tion in symbolic fashion.

Student responses were diagramed in order to discover the extent to which words related to or taken directly from the metaphor were used in explaining the understanding the student had developed. Using a word or words from the target paragraph (which now can be understood as the tenor of the metaphor) and then a word or words from the metaphor para­ graph (now the vehicle) can be looked on as evidence of interaction between the tenor and the vehicle.

The H student's response can be seen in Figure 4. It is readily apparent that even though she had had prior experience with the concept, she freely used aspects of the metaphor in her sentence by sentence summary and in her summary from memory of the target paragraph; she moved back and forth from vehicle to tenor three times in each task.

This pattern demonstrates the interaction taking place.

In the case of this student, the metaphor became intertwined with the literal target paragraph in her sentence by sentence responses: Class Background

H Prior Knowledge High School Advanced Placement Biology

Comments

I hate Biology. I don't know it that well.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

alphabet universal bodies, viruses every living thing link decoded different combinations make us different endless combinations memory: alphabet amino acids coded in triplets like the alphabet can make words amino acids combined in different ways to make different organisms

Figure 4

Metaphor Condition 74

Basically, we're all made the same, just like the alphabet is universal...There's a common link between them that can be decoded.

When asked, "How does what you read above the line connect with

what you read below the line?" she said,

The stuff above the line just gave me a kind of basis to go on what these questions meant. Not so much what I was answering. In a way I was answering on my know­ ledge of Biology. I hate Biology. I took AP Biology last year. I don't know it that well.

Whether the student was working from her memory of AP Biology or

not, her responses clearly echoed the metaphor with which she was

presented. The metaphor shaped the form of the response she made when

asked to explain how the genetic code is thought to work. At that point

she did not have access to the text, but used the metaphor of the text

to explain the idea.

It works like the alphabet. The amino acids are coded in triplets to specify certain organisms, like the alpha- bet is used to signify certain aminos. Like the alphabet can make words— amino acids— the coding can be combined in different ways for different organisms.

Among the FS students who claimed prior knowledge of the genetic

code, this interaction pattern is almost entirely absent. Their re­ sponses can be seen in Figures 5-8. Their summary scores based on idea units included are comparatively high (6, 7, and 2), but their summary from memory scores are not (0, 2, 2). It can be inferred tentatively that these students depended on their memories for information concern ing the genetic code rather than upon the metaphor presented to them.

Every one of the five FS students who claimed no prior knowledge of the genetic code demonstrated the interaction pattern, moving from tenor to vehicle repeatedly. (See Figures 9-13.) While this movement happened Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge High School Biology Denison Zoology

Comments

Each course dealt with the genetic code slightly.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: all organisms one time different because of order infinitely many amino acide sequences memory: your DNA codes proteins

Figure 5

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge High School Advanced Placement Biology Denison Zoology and Chemistry

Comments

The sequence is the key to it.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: link evolved only once viruse, bacteria, human beings, all others due to variations in the order endless variety infinite numbers of ways for triplet arrangements memory: different bases DNA strand order, sequence

Figure 6

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge High School Chemistry

Comments

I’m thinking of when I took Chemistry.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: life organisms evolved once different genes many varying combinations memory: triplets DNA combinations vary

Figure 7

Metaphor Condition 78

Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge High School Biology

Comments

I don’t always think while I'm reading. I don't remember much [from high school Biology.]

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: universal one time differences in different kinds of bases triplets, different arrangements memory:

code DNA sequence of triplets amino acids evolved

Figure 8

Metaphor Condition 79 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

It helped when it explained it with Morse Code, because if you know what Morse Code is you can know what the genetic code is* It's so much easier to learn things when you can relate to something. If you don't understand you can say it's like this, but it's different because of....So if you know what the first thing is you can relate it and then you can know the different thing and you can add things to it. It makes it easier to understand things.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: universal- alphabet genetic code evolved Morse Code spell different things virus and bacteria spelled like different words words go on forever r “ infinite | amino acid sequences memory: triplets infinite number code code symbols triplet codes Morse Code genetic code symbols

Figure 9

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle)

summary:

universal started at beginning difference between bacteria and humans amino acids DNA three identical ones

memory:

amino acids DNA universally triplets alphabets Morse Code infinite threesomes amino acids nitrogenous bases different arrangements of triplets 26 letters 3 letter word different combinations triplets same alphabet

a word, a name different amino acids instead of letters

Figure 10

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: universal same for viruses and humans came about once nitrogenous bases variations in way code is organized, the order in which it's put together sequences, arrangement endless variety of amino acid sequences memory: relationship between two alphabets, protein and DNA combinations of three put together in different ways codons symbols 2 alphabets Morse Code dots and dashes alphabet relation between two messages Morse Code dots and dashes different arrangements like the Morse Code dots and dashes for different letters symbols different arrangements determining different amino acids and proteins Figure 11

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: people, all animals universal variations can change to get a virus protein changing one thing on the DNA strand can make a difference memory:

DNA strands amino acids, proteins two alphabets like the ABC alphabet changing different letters different triplets- entirely different words one code with two alphabets makes up everything that is alive

Figure 12

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: same for all beings evolution DNA order many different arrangements amino acids sequence memory:

built like a language triplets amino acids proteins different sequences virus, bacteria, humans language communication system like Morse Code

Figure 13

Metaphor Condition 84 less often (6, 0, 1, 0, and 0 times) in the summary task, it happened with great regularity in the summary from memory task (5, 9, 5, 4, and 3 times). These students cannot have been depending on prior knowledge and, therefore, must be seen as depending on the metaphor for shaping their understanding of the concept. To repeat Hesse (1966):

The metaphor works by transferring the associated ideas and implications of the secondary to the primary system. These select, emphasize, or suppress features of the pri­ mary; new slants in the primary are illuminated; the pri­ mary is "seen through" the frame of the secondary.

In this case, the ideas associated with the Morse Code can be seen illuminating the ideas essential to understanding the genetic code. The number of idea units included in the retellings by this group was high.

For the summary task scores were: 8.5, 5, 9, 5, and 7. For the summary from memory task scores were: 3, 6, 4, 3, and 5.5

The comment of the student whose response is diagramed in Figure 9 is, in effect, a student version of Hesse's statement. In part, the student said,

So if you know what the first thing is you can relate it and then you can know the different thing and you can add things to it.

Three of the five students said they found the metaphor helpful in understanding the new idea. The other two found it helpful even though they were unaware that they did, for they used it in their memory statements. This lack of awareness appears to be present in many novice readers. 85

The Literal Condition

The three H students receiving this condition indicated no prior knowledge of the genetic code concept. Two handled the literal explanation quite well, scoring 5 and 5.5 on the summary task and 3 and

2.5 on the summary from memory task. One of the two referred twice to the literal paragraph which preceded the target paragraph in the summary task. After completing the literal condition and then receiving the metaphor, both agreed that the Morse Code metaphor made the concept clearer. Figures 14 and 15 display their responses.

When asked whether the additional paragraph had altered her understanding of what she had read originally, the first student responded, "It reminds me of what I read up here about the link between the two and how one produces the other." Investigator, "The link?"

Student: "Between the two alphabets."

Discussion with the second H student after receiving the metaphor produced the following:

Student: It helps me understand it a little bit better. I can relate, like using the Morse Code. I can understand how, the way the relationships that link the DNA and the protein together are in code, are in symbols in groups of triplets. It's a little easier.

Investigator: Why?

Student: Because they used the example of the Morse Code— the dots and dashes. And the paragraph before used all the big long words. They told you directly how the coding is done of the DNA alphabet, protein alphabet... how the triplets are put together. The symbols are like the same thing. It says how the function is like the coding.

Investigator: Do you know very much about Morse Code? Class Background

H No Prior Knowledge

Comments

After reading metaphor: It reminds me of what I read up here about the link.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

order arrange things differently infinite combinations result in infinite proteins memory:

sequence of genes infinite results after reading metaphor:

evolved only once \ link between the two alphabets the DNA alphabet and the protein alphabet

Figure 14

Literal Condition 87 Class Background

H No Prior Knowledge Morse Code as used on children’s walkie-talkies

Comments

After reading metaphor: Morse Code gives a clearer picture of the relationship between the codes. They told you directly out how the coding is done.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summaryj

universal viruses evolved nucleotide bases order infinite memory:

DNA strands polypeptide sequences humans, animals infinite number after reading metaphor: Morse Code link DNA and protein in code, in symbols triplets- groups of triplets Morse Code dots, dashes DNA alphabet protein alphabet symbols are like the same thing

Figure 15

Literal Condition 88

Student: A little. When I was younger I had walkie- talkies and they had a little chart on them.

The third H student expressed great doubt that she would be helpful to the investigator upon beginning to read the target paragraph aloud.

"I know nothing about Biology or any of the sciences...This might not help you...This is all new information." It was such new information that the student scored zero for both the summary and the memory tasks.

She was then presented with the metaphor paragraph and another chance to read the target paragraph. In her subsequent summary and summary from memory, the interaction was evident arid can be seen in Figure 16.

Scores for her summary and summary from memory were 2 and 2 on the basis of her inclusion of sequential order in each statement.

After her reading of the metaphor passage, the following exchange took place:

Investigator: Does it still mean nothing to you?

Student: No...it made it more clear.

Investigator: In what way?

Student: (After reading lines 1 and 2 of the target paragraph) I'm becoming more interested...probably because it was linked with something I was familiar with. (After reading line 3) I don't see how this goes with genetic code. (Reread silently) What I'm getting out of it is that the triplets aren't based, aren't derived through [different] nitrogenous bases, but there are different variations. It's how they're grouped.

In her retelling from memory after receiving the metaphor, the student used the word "decipher." When asked why, she replied, "the

Morse Code." This student's response is a good example of how a student can begin by not knowing anything about a subject and can, in fact, be uninterested and alienated from it, but who can be drawn in by a 89 Class Background

H No Prior Knowledge

Comments

The words are very familiar, but I just don't like science, so I automatically [ignore] them.

After reading metaphor: I'm becoming more interested.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

None of the literal condition made enough sense to her to do the summary task.

after reading metaphor:

summary: Morse Code another form of writing down the triplets symbols just as the Morse Code triplets aren't / derived through nitrogenous bases different variations it's how they're grouped memory:

sections of tripletsl ^[deciphering IMorse Code

Figure 16

Literal Condition 90 metaphor based upon a familiar concept. By the time this student finished, she understood the central principle of sequential order and its importance to the concept.

Three of the five FS students receiving the literal condition indicated having prior knowledge of the concept. As can be seen in

Figures 17-19, they did not use the literal paragraph preceding the target paragraph except in one instance.

The first of these students said he had a Biology course during his freshman year in high school and "learned that DNA in the chromosomes controlled what characteristics or traits we would develop." He scored

2.5 on the summary task and 0 on the memory task, so his prior knowledge was not very helpful to him. In fact, at the end of the time spent on the genetic code paragraph, he said that the sequential order idea was completely new to him.

One of his responses is particularly interesting for this study.

In performing the summary task in order to talk about the concept of sequential order, he said, "Different combinations on the padlock may change the order of things, make different things happen. That’s why they change to make different beings." After completing the memory task he was presented with the metaphor and rejected it as a totally different explanation from the metaphor which was live to him. An interesting exchange followed.

Student: Getting into this thing of two different alphabets, combining them together showing the different combinations in comparison with Morse Code which I don't know anything about [makes it more con­ fusing. ] 91

Class Background

FS High School Biology (though not familiar with sequential order idea) Athlete— uses a combination padlock

Comments

In summarizing the target paragraph: Different combinations on the padlock may change the order of things,

after reading metaphor:

It's a totally different explanation. I'm used to the other way.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle)

summary:

person combination order of things different organisms different combinations memory:

triplets amino acids organization triplets organism

after reading metaphor:

two different alphabets Morse Code

Figure 17

Literal Condition 92 Class Background

FS High School Biology Morse Code as used on children's walkie-talkies

Comments

I've read it before, but I can't remember how it all works.

After reading metaphor:

Reading this paragraph makes it a little clearer...the fact that they use an example like the Morse Code. Of course, it's something that's easier to understand so something as complicated as DNA it's easy to relate it to something that's more simplistic like the Morse Code...a lot easier.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

reading the genetic^ code order amino acids different organisms not due to different bases order humans, viruses different combinations different proteins endless amount of proteins memory:

DNA different amino acids triplets order organisms after reading metaphor: ■Morse Code

Figure 18

Literal Condition 93 Class Background

FS High School Biology

Comments

I already know some of this. It’s hard to take in information without the other getting in the way.

After reading metaphor: When I read this [the metaphor], it came back to me.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

DNA RNA ___ different ways of building DNA different codes ^or^something

The student was confused at this point and was not asked for a summary from memory. after reading metaphor: summary: different alphabets encode genetic alphabets put together in different ways for' each organism code DNA alphabet Morse Code groups of symbols codons triplets vary encoding alphabet has two symbols: dot and dash

Figure 19

Literal Condition 94

Investigator: You compared it yourself to a padlock— the combination kind?

Student: Yes

Investigator: Would that be different to comparing it to a code?

Student: Not really, I guess it's because I'm more used to a padlock. 'Cause I'm an athlete. I've had a locker all year, so I'm more used to a padlock.

As can be seen in the comments in Figures 18 and 19, the other two

FS students found the metaphor illuminating.

The second FS student in this literal group of those who had had prior experience with the genetic code indicated he had learned something about it in high school Biology his sophomore year. He, too, said he could not "remember how it all works." After completing the summary task (4 points) and the memory task (2 points), he read the metaphor. He said that the [metaphor] paragraph made the idea "a little clearer. It's basically what I thought of when I was reading the first paragraph. Maybe I could say it better now. I don't know." When asked how the paragraph made it clearer, he said,

The fact that they use an example to relate it to like the Morse Code. Of course, it's something that's easier to understand so something as complicated as DNA it's easy to relate it to something that's more simplistic like the Morse Code. It does make it a lot easier.

When asked of his experience with the Morse Code, he said he had read about it and that he had had "those little walkie-talkies with the code on them."

The third and final FS student who received the literal and who had prior knowledge of the genetic code scored 0 on both the summary and 95

memory tasks. After sentence four in the summary task, the following

exchange was recorded:

Student: It's explaining the different ways of building the DNA...the genetic...I understand... it's hard to explain...the way the genetic code is built up. I guess it's generally built the same. I think they have different codes or something.

Investigator: Have you studied this before?

Student: Uh huh.

Investigator: And so you're relying on what you already know? More than on what you read here?

Student: I already know some of this. It's hard to take in this information without the other getting in the way.

After she read the metaphor paragraph silently,

Student: ...when I read this it came back to me... When I reading about the different alphabets that encode for the genetic alphabets like the codes are the same but they're put together in a different way for each organism— they might be built different... the Morse Code.

The two FS students who had had prior knowledge of the genetic code

treated the summary task in two ways. One stayed with thetarget para­

graph entirely while the other alternated between the literal paragraph

and the target paragraph five times (see Figures 20-21). Their scores were 5.5 and 6 on the summary and 3.5 and 0 on the summary from memory.

Finally, each was presented with the metaphor; both found the metaphor

paragraph helpful.

After receiving the metaphor paragraph, the first FS student said,

It clarifies the other paragraph. The one before was scientifically written and this is a little more understandable, compared with something you are already familiar with. The comparison to 96 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading metaphor:

It clarifies the other paragraph. The one before was scientifically worded and this is a little more understandable compared to something you are already familiar with.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: triplet- DNA sequence virus, humans DNA, RNA evolved once relationship order of bases, not kinds of bases sequence infinite number nucleotide bases- endless variety of amino acids and proteins memory: relationship DNA, RNA sequence arrangement triplets evolved humans, viruses, bacteria different arrangements roteins, amino acids after reading metaphor:

Morse Code

Figure 20

Literal Condition 97

Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

I have no familiarity with this material. I have heard what amino acids are, but I have not studied this subject..

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

amino acids protein triplet all organisms: virus, humans universal one evolutionary process variety of different bases amino acids endless amount of variations triplets in DNA memory:

evolved triplets infinite amount amino acids bacteria, humans after reading metaphor:

genetic code Morse Code reconnecting language of DNA to protein connecting two different alphabets together link Figure 21

Literal Condition 98 Morse Code helps because I understood it more com­ pared to that [literal target paragraph].

The second of these FS students demonstrated confusion about the

concept in his summary from memory:

A genetic code is evolved to be a different set of triplets which are an infinite amount which are varied and this results in the structure of the amino acids in the bacteria in human beings. I have no familiarity with this material. I have heard what amino acids are, but I have not studied the subject.

After reading the metaphor, his understanding improved and he demonstrated reliance on the metaphor:

The only difference I see is that it says that the genetic code is a Morse Code which is a way of re­ connecting the language of the DNA to the protein, connecting the two different alphabets together. That's probably the only difference that I see. I see it as more of a connecting part than just one singular [entity]. The first two sentences of the paragraph made me see that difference. The one word that changed my understanding: "link."

The Neither Condition

The H student who received the neither condition had had contact with the genetic code concept (see Figure 22). His scores were 5 and 4 on the summary from memory tasks. When presented with the metaphor he extended it in talking about it:

In this I got more. It seemed like they were more concerned about patterns and how they relate an in­ finite number of different possibilities. How they started out and ended up with an infinite number of possibilities. Each one of these different arrange­ ments is like words in a sentence. You can put them all together and end up with one thing. Both [para­ graphs] are saying the same thing, but they're cen­ tering on something different. 99 Class Background

H High School Biology

Comments after reading metaphor;

In this I got more. It seemed like they were more concerned about patterns and how they relate an infinite number of different possibili­ ties. Each of these different arrangements is like words in a sentence. You can put them all together and end up with one things. Both [paragraphs] are saying the same thing.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: amino acid DNA all creatures one original code order proteins triplets order infinite number of patterns infinite number of proteins memory: triplets DNA ordered in different sequences infinite number different proteins genetic codes triplets one original genetic code after reading metaphor: alphabet

Figure 22

Neither Condition 1 0 0

Two of the FS students in the neither condition had extensive background with the concept; both were enrolled at the time in Biology courses at Denison. Their scores were 4 and 4 on the summary task and 5 and 2 on the summary from memory task. Upon reading the metaphor they agreed that the Morse Code metaphor was appropriate. Their responses can be found in Figures 23-24.

The third FS student indicated having gained general prior know­ ledge during a high school biology course taken in her freshman year.

Her scores were 6.5 and 4.5 on the summary and summary from memory tasks. After being presented the metaphor, she shifted back and forth from the metaphor to the literal paragraphs four times, demonstrating her reliance on the metaphor for her understanding (see Figure 25).

I see now they’re talking about how they send messages back and forth. When they explain it with something I'm familiar with like Morse Code, it's easier to understand. The dot and dash and the way you can arrange them in different alphabetic orders to spell different things and relay different messages. They're all the same size— it's just the different varieties, different arrangements. It's hard to distinguish be­ tween different ones because there are so many ways you can rearrange the dots and dashes.

The Artificial Paragraph

The metaphor supplied for the context-free paragraph used by

Bransford and Johnson (1972) was "Washing clothes is an almost bureau­ cratic sort of chore." Of all the summaries and summaries from memory collected both In writing and orally from all the subjects in the study, only one person, a faculty participant referred in any way to the Class Background

FS Denison Zoology

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: evolut ion DNA is not different order so many different organisms memory: all organisms universal triplets different proteins different beings

Figure 23

Neither Condition 1 0 2

Class Background

FS Denison Molecular Biology

Comments

It makes it a little more clear. Morse Code is a good description of how that happens.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle)

summary:

amino acids different species formed at the same time amino acid different varieties

memory:

amino acids various different codes DNA protein v i r u s e s , bacteria

after metaphor: Morse Code

Figure 24

Neither Condition 103 Class Background

FS High School Biology

Comments

I can't really remember the basics now. I'm just familiar with the terms.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: viruses humans amino acid evolved only once virus, bacteria DNA rearranged differently varieties of different proteins memory:

DNA amino acids rearranged differently so many varieties after reading metaphor: messages back and forth Morse Code dot, dash different alphabetic

spell different things relay different messages all the same size different varieties different arrangements so many ways you can rearrange the dots and dashes

Figure 25

Neither Condition 104 vehicle of the metaphor. She wrote, "Preparation and the proper steps establish the dependable routine for this Sisyphean chore." For no other person was the metaphor enough "alive" to be useful in creating a meaning for the paragraph; therefore, no analysis was done of the oral responses.

The Literary Paragraph

The metaphor presented to students before reading the paragraph by

Thoreau was, "Society is a sick and dying man." The tenor is "society" and the vehicle is "a sick and dying man." The ground is the relation­ ship between all people and one man.

Student responses were diagramed as for the Genetic Code paragraph and the results were similar in that they indicated extensive interac­ tion between the tenor and the vehicle for H students and for FS stu­ dents lacking prior knowledge.

The Metaphor Condition

The H student who received the metaphor and who had no prior know­ ledge of the concept in the paragraph shifted back and forth between the tenor and the vehicle twelve times in her summary. Her scores for the summary task and the summary from memory task: 7.5 and 4.0 The six FS students without prior knowledge shifted 2, 6, 0, 5, 3, and 3 times in their summaries and 1, 6, 1, 1, 8, and 0 times in their summaries from memory, suggesting a high degree of interaction. Their scores were 6, 4.5, 7.5, 8.0, 7.5, and 8.5 on the summary task and 3.0, 5.0, 5.0, 4.0,

6.5, and 5.5 on the summary from memory task. The two FS students who had had prior contact with either writing of Thoreau or with the concept of nature vs. society shifted 2 and 0 times in their summaries and 0 and

2 times in their summaries from memory. Their scores were summary: 7.5 and 9.0; memory: 5 and 6.5 The diagrams of all literary paragraph re­ sponses can be found in Appendix B.

The Literal Condition

In the literal condition the H student with prior knowledge scored

8.5 and 5.5 on the summary and summary from memory tasks. H students without prior knowledge scored 7.5 and 4.0 on the summaries and 4.5 and

4.0 on the summaries from memory. FS students performed as well; sum­ mary scores were 0, 5.5, 5.5, and 7.5 and summary from memory scores were 5, 5, 5, and 4. Four of the subjects in the literal condition were presented with the metaphor and agreed that it was helpful. "It ties everything together." "It does make sense." "Society is dying." "If I would have had this and then read, I would have understood more than just reading it."

The Neither Condition

The H student in the neither condition had prior knowledge and scored 8 on the summary task and 6.5 on the summary from memory task.

The FS student with prior knowledge scored 7.0 and 6.5, while the FS student without prior knowledge scored 4.5 and 4.0 on the tasks. Their comments on being shown the metaphor: "It emphasizes something I guess

I didn't emphasize enough." "I think it confirms how the author feels."

"I can see where this comes from now." CHAPTER VI

INTERPRETATION, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Interpretation and Conclusions

Results of a two-part study conducted in order to define the role of metaphor in the comprehension processes of college students (novices) and their professors (experts) reading academic texts yielded five trends:

1. Freshman Studies students in the metaphor condition had scores

consistently similar to those of the Honors students in the

metaphor condition.

2. When given a literal explanation, Honors students had

consistently higher scores than did the Freshman Studies

students, although a statistically significant difference

between the groups could not be demonstrated in this study.

3. Honors students were more likely to make use of all sources of

information (metaphoric and literal) whether or not they had

prior knowledge of the subject matter than were the Freshman

Studies students.

107 108

4. Freshman Studies students with prior knowledge tended to

Ignore the metaphoric and literal information in their oral

retellings; instead, their retellings relied on the target

paragraph which they had just read.

5. Freshman Studies students without prior knowledge achieved

statistically significant higher retelling scores when given

an extended metaphor than when given an extended literal

explanation of the target paragraph. They depended heavily on

the metaphor in their oral retellings, shifting back and forth

between the tenor and the vehicle many times.

The findings of Part II produce support for the findings in Part I.

Returning to the three hypotheses stated in Chapter III, it can be said that the study produced evidence which supports the first and the third.

Hypothesis 1: The priming metaphor will facilitate comprehension in all cases, with particular facilita­ tion occurring for the less expert readers.

The priming metaphor facilitated comprehension for Freshman

Studies students (the "less expert" readers in this study) who did not have prior knowledge of the subject matter, for whom the subject matter was difficult, and for whom the metaphor was "live." Honors students did not appear to need the metaphor in order to develop an understanding

(achieve a high score) of the concept, but they indicated an apprecia­ tion of the metaphor as well as a tendency to use it when it was presented to them.

These findings may be interpreted as consistent with Kuhn’s theory, transactional theory, response theory, schema theory, and from the perspective of a philosophy of metaphor. That many theorists in 109

different disciplines have begun to approach the question of the making

of meaning in similar ways provides a solid grounding for the

interpretation of these findings.

It has been said that the expert demonstrates a commitment to a

paradigm which guides comprehension (Kuhn, 1970). One explanation of

the Honors students' performance would include a commitment to a method

of reading all texts. Among the "standard beliefs and procedures"

ascribed to by this group may be a belief that all sources of informa­

tion are important and should be considered. Students who become Honors

students may have been given more freedom of thought in their prior

schooling; they may have practiced being more independent with more

kinds of texts and, thus, may have learned to use all available informa­

tion.

In the absence of a schema on which to map the new idea (the

literal condition), the "less expert" readers, the Freshman Studies

students, had more difficulty in summarizing the concept than did the

Honors students, even when both claimed not to have had prior experience with the concept. There is, therefore, a difference in what skilled and

less skilled readers find important. In Kuhn's terms, they might be

said to be operating out of different paradigms or, at least, out of different developmental levels of mastery of a paradigm which guides

academic (efferent) reading. Faculty readers, presumably the most highly skilled in academic reading, exhibited consistent ability to seek out the important elements of the concepts. They can be compared to

Chase and Simon's expert chess players; working out of an academic 110

culture, they have learned the rules through which they have something to perceive, while less skilled readers who have not miss many ideas.

Transactional theory focuses on the reader. The "less expert" reader would be a reader who comes to the text with less background knowledge, both of the content of the text and of strategies for allo­ cating attention at important places in the text. Such a reader needs to be provided certain kinds of support in order to create a successful efferent reading of academic texts; the priming metaphor, then, can be seen to serve as providing guidance for the reader by creating "a recep­ tivity to certain kinds of ideas, overtones, or attitudes" (Rosenblatt,

1978).

The central ideas of the science paragraph (universality of the genetic code and sequential order) and of the literary paragraph (the conditions of society and nature) are provided in the priming metaphors given to subjects: 1. the alphabet represented by the Morse Code is universal, and different words are represented by different, but speci­ fic sequences, and 2. society is referred to as sick and dying. Begin­ ning the reading of a text with the elements of the metaphor might be equivalent to prefacing such reading with a discussion. The reader becomes "active, self-ordering, and self-correcting" (Rosenblatt, 1978) by having an experience to refer back to in the absence of other prior experience. Providing the metaphor, therefore, is an efficient way of providing prior experience.

The responses of "less expert" readers without prior knowledge who were given a literal priming paragraph can be analyzed in terms of response theory. Their lower sores can be explained as the result of I l l

their limited background knowledge of the content as well as their

limited repertoire of comprehension strategies. The literal prime was

just as far beyond their experience and their comprehension strategies

as was the literal target.

The metaphor can be regarded as a schema of the idea being pre­

sented in the target paragraph. It is facilitating of comprehension

because the reader who is alert to it and who has had some experience

with it can "map" the new idea (the literal target) onto it. Anderson

(1985, pp. 376-377) has suggested six functions of schemata. The first

is as a scaffold for the assimilation of text information. In the

science paragraph, for example, the metaphor provides a slot (a place on

the hypothetical scaffold) for the sequence concept by referring to the

Morse Code. The reader's attention is directed (the second function) to

this slot by the reference to it within the known concept. Third, the

schema enables inferential elaboration. Knowledge of the Morse Code and

of the idea that dots and dashes combine in different ways permits the

inference that the code has an unlimited flexibility and capacity for

creating different words. This inferred idea transfers to the proper­

ties of the different arrangements of triplets along the DNA strand.

The schema permits an orderly search of memory, which is the fourth

function. Memory of the system by which the Morse Code operates can be

searched, and the parallels found in the genetic code can be mapped onto it; editing and summarizing (function five) can proceed in the same fashion. As evidenced by the much lower scores of the Freshman Studies students in the literal condition for summarizing the science paragraph from memory, compared to the statistically significant higher scores for 112 the Freshman Studies students In the metaphor condition for summarizing from memory, the presence of an accessible schema permits the inferen­ tial reconstruction of the concept being learned (the sixth function).

The Honors and Freshman Studies students in the metaphor condition can be presumed to have made the same use of the priming metaphor. "The schema accepts information as it becomes available at sensory surfaces and is changed by that information" (Neisser, 1976, p. 54). Both sets of students instantiated slots in the metaphor-schema as they read the literal target and they can be said to have retrieved the information in orderly ways in their retellings, because the scoring criteria were set up to mirror the idea units in the target paragraphs.

Hypothesis 3 : Responses across groups should reveal evidence of processing the metaphor as comparative or interactive.

Oral responses showed strong evidence of both H and FS students making interactive use of the tenor and vehicle of the metaphors when they were presented to them in the absence of prior knowledge of the subject matter. This may be regarded as a demonstration of the steps through which the comprehender maps a new idea upon an old.

Transactional theory holds that the reader's attention moves back and forth among the ideas within the text and that it also moves back and forth among ideas held in memory and ideas in the text. It is this interaction of all ideas that the reader is able to bring to bear on the solution of the comprehension task before him or her that is characterized as "thinking." The shifts in the patterns of thought 113 between the tenor and the vehicle of the metaphor have been clearly represented In Figures 4, 9-13, and 26-32 (Appendix B).

That the Honors student whose responses are diagramed in Figure 4 and who had prior knowledge of the genetic code concept made use of the metaphor, even when it might not have been necessary, is of interest.

Why would a skilled reader whose peers scored high in Part I on the literal condition even bother with incorporating the metaphor and target explanations of the genetic code? A reasonable, yet tentative, explana­ tion is that it is an easier and more efficient transaction to map a new idea upon an already held idea, than it is to grapple with the elements of a new idea without support. This analysis is the opposite of the conclusion Petrun (1981) drew regarding cognitive effort. The Honors students apparently have the strategies to do such grappling; they also employ the strategy of using available support, and that strategy appears to take precedence. As with the expert chess players, they make use of the rules which direct them as to what to perceive.

Rosenblatt (1983) criticized the teaching of reading in such a way that students come to believe that the purpose of the task is to memo­ rize the surface structure of the text. The Freshman Studies students in the metaphor condition who had prior knowledge of the concepts in the target paragraphs showed little or no evidence of using the metaphor in constructing their understanding of the specific concepts treated in the paragraphs, and may be regarded as holding that belief. Figures 5-8 show almost no interaction occurring between the tenor and the vehicle of the metaphor for the science paragraph. Similar results can be found in Figures 26-32 (Appendix B) for the literary paragraph. 114

Another explanation of their failure to allocate attention to the metaphor would suggest that because they were using a previously held schema for the science paragraph or the literary paragraph, they were appraising the incoming information contained in the target paragraphs in relation to that schema rather than in terms of the schema given them in the priming metaphor. In their allocation of attention, the question they may have been trying to answer could have been whether the target paragraph added to or conflicted with what they had stored in memory about the concept on a previous occasion rather than whether the target paragraph added to or conflicted with the passage (the metaphor) with which they had just been presented. Additionally, the Freshman Studies students, having not developed their strategies as fully as have the

Honors students, may simply not be as flexible in their processing.

In the absence of prior knowledge of a concept, both Freshman

Studies and Honors students appear to use a practiced way of moving back and forth between a metaphor's tenor and the vehicle in coming to an understanding of the new concept. This response seems not to be auto­ matic in the Freshman Studies student who possesses prior knowledge.

Schema theory would add an additional explanation of why the Fresh­ man Studies students with prior knowledge appear to ignore the metaphor when presented with it. Operating on the basis of an older, and perhaps more deeply entrenched schema may make the usually available monitoring processes less reliable by making such monitoring seem unnecessary.

There may be no signal that the meaning being constructed is in any way at odds with the priming metaphor of the target text. Students with less experience with academic reading may revert back to a previously 115 held schema, even while struggling to remember it, rather than paying attention to the newly presented schema. Attempting to add to a schema may seem easier at first than attempting to assimilate a new schema into an old one.

The diagrams set forth in Figures 4 and 9-13, and Figures 26-32

(Appendix B) are evidence that a reader actually does "view domain Y from the perspective of an already known X. (Bransford and Nitsch,

1985). The genetic code is being seen from the perspective of the Morse Code, and society is being seen as represented by the unfortunate condition of one symbolic man.

It will be recalled that Hesse (1966) also wrote about "transfer­ ring the associated ideas and implications of the secondary to the primary system." As was predicted on the basis of her theory, the charted oral responses of both Honors and Freshman Studies students who had no prior knowledge of the concepts show their processes of

"select[ing,] and suppress[ing,] features of the primary while seeing the secondary through its frame." For example, in Figure 4, "alphabet" is connected to concrete examples and then to "every living thing." In turn, "endless combinations" is connected back to "alphabet."

According to Richards (1936), interactive metaphors cause the reader to make inferences rather than just to react. The connections are that compelling.

Hypothesis 2 ; Readers in general will exhibit common patterns with evidence of difficulty coming at particular points in the text. Readers primed with the metaphor will show some reliance on it at these points which should cor­ respond to the topic, ground, and vehicle of the metaphor. 116 While several FS students in Part II asked for definitions of words at points in the literary text which become increasingly predictable

(vicissitudes, wots, paltry, and elixir), they did not appear to reflect upon the metaphor for help; instead, they operated as though they could figure out the sentence if only they were given a meaning for the word.

When the definition was given, this was the case. Otherwise, when a student exhibited difficulty with the text, he or she usually did not exhibit awareness of that difficulty at the time, and, thus, no evidence to support Hypothesis 2 was established.

Recommendations for Further Study

The finding that the Freshman Studies students in Part II who had prior knowledge of the concepts presented to them did not appear to make interactive use of the schema contained in the metaphor, and further, did not achieve high scores on their summaries should be studied.

Hypotheses to be tested might include: 1. Less cognitive effort is expended by less skilled comprehenders when a previously held schema is available in the presence of a new schema, even when the new schema differs in its logic from the old, 2. The existence of a previously held schema in the presence of a new and competing schema can interfere with the successful application of allocation of attention strategies of less skilled comprehenders, 3. Skilled comprehenders have a specifiable inferential strategy according to which they make use of all information available to them, and 4. Factors involving attitude and motivation can 117 inhibit the comprehension of less skilled readers and enhance the comprehension of more highly skilled readers.

Response theory would suggest recording "extended responses" to academic reading primed and not primed by metaphors and literals in order to chart the progress of individual readers. Subjects should be of different abilities and should be with and without prior knowledge in order to discover whether a developmental sequence exists. Categories would emerge as the data are analyzed, but the researcher might begin by looking for the following in the students' protocols: contrast, classi­ fication, change, paradigmatic context, time, and logical sequence.

Process paradigms for academic reading appear to exist for skilled readers both in the presence and absence of well-defined, content- oriented schemata. Such a study would begin to identify the elements of such paradigms.

Another area for further study should include attempting to deter­ mine whether it is the case that the metaphor-schema upon which a new idea is based does not drop away after the idea becomes more firmly secured in memory.

Performance in the literal condition was generally lower than in the neither condition. Further study could explain why.

A methodological study is suggested by this study. It would be useful for future research to determine whether different results would be obtained using a system of propositional analysis as compared to the system of idea units used in this study.

It appears that naturally occurring texts containing metaphors should be used in such research instead of artificially constructed 118 texts. More needs to be learned, next, about the form of a metaphor which will aid comprehension. Is an extended metaphor superior to a short metaphoric statement, or is it the content which is the more important factor? Does a metaphor enhance learning in one academic area more than in another?

The developmental studies discussed in Chapter II suggest that all levels of students can understand metaphors that are live to them. The same experiment conducted with elementary and secondary students could determine whether and how they learn from metaphors.

Finally, an application of the finding that a live metaphor can stimulate comprehension of a novel concept should be developed and tested for classroom use at all educational levels. APPENDIX A

EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS

119 120 The purpose of this study is to investigate the reading behavior of college students.

1. Please read the paragraphs on each page carefully.

2. Then focus on the material below the line. Write as much of the information as possible into your own words in the space provided. Use the back of the paper if necessary.

3. Turn to the next page and answer the question given at the top. Do not look back at the original paragraphs. 121

2.

The genetic code is the set of relationships that link two alphabets, the DNA alphabet and a protein alphabet. It is the Morse Code of genetics. In Morse, the encoding alphabet has just two symbols, "dot" and "dash." To encode English you form groups of dots and dashes to represent each of the twenty-six letters of the written alphabet. The genetic code is neater, in a way— the coding groups are all triplets of the same size— and more complicated, because different groups of symbols (codons) can stand for the same thing. But its function is the same, to relate messages written in two different alphabets.

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans. This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once. The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases. Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. 4. 122 Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 123 4.

Washing clothes is an almost bureaucratic sort of chore.

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 125 6.

According to the author of the following paragraph, society Is a sick and dying man.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper. Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories? There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes. How much more than Federal are these States! If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire. Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of. What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk? What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk? The merely politi­ cal aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization. On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay. I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan's Island with a few avenues connecting them. But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid. Society is always diseased and the best is the most so. There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system. To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health. To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author's viewpoint of humankind. 127

1.

Crick and Brenner sensed that the results probably revealed the nature of the genetic code: the relationship between the nucleotide sequence in DNA (or RNA) and the amino acid sequence in a polypeptide chain. These results would be expected if the genetic code consists of nucleotide bases that are read linearly, three at time, with the sequence of each triplet signifying an amino acid.

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans. This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once. The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases. Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 129 3.

The following paragraph describes a process.

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 131

5.

The following was written in 1842.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper. Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories? There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes. How much more than Federal are these States! If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire. Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of. What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk? What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk? The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization. On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay. I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan’s Island with a few avenues connecting them. But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid. Society is always diseased and the best is the most so. There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system. To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health. To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author's viewpoint of humankind. 133 7.

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans. This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once. The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases. Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 135 8.

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 137 9.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper. Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories? There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes. How much more than Federal are these States! If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire. Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of. What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk? What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk? The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization. On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay. I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan's Island with a few avenues connecting them. But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid. Society is always diseased and the best is the most so. There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system. To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health. To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author's viewpoint of humankind. CRITERIA FOR SCORING

SCIENCE PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Universality (2) Sequential Order (2)

evolved all organisms infinite endless once (1) number variety of viruses, bacteria of arrange­ amino acid humans, others ments of sequences (.5 each) triplets in proteins (1) (1) 140

CRITERIA FOR SCORING

ARTIFICIAL PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Attributes Steps in Procedure 1 Steps in Procedure 2 simple (.5) arrange into arrange into different groups (1) different groups again (1) no end to need for one group may put into appropriate it (.5) suffice (.5) places (1) do not find facilities (1) repeat cycle (1) overdo (.5) may need to go mistakes elsewhere (.5) can be expensive (.5) better to do too little than too much (.5) 141

CRITERIA FOR SCORING

LITERARY PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Society (2) Nature (2) disease (1) health (1) politics (.5 decay (.5) any concrete cure (.5) reference (.5 each— up to 2 points allowed) service berries, pokeweed, juniper book of natural history The purpose of this study is to investigate the reading behavior of college students. n.

1. Please read the material above the line silently.

2. Below the line you can see that a paragraph or paragraphs are set out sentence by sentence. Your task is to read sentence by sentence uncovering the sentences as you proceed down the page. After reading each sentence, stop and tell me in your own words what it means to you.

3. After reading each page, you will be asked a question. 143 2.

The genetic code is the set of relationships that link two alphabets, the DNA alphabet and a protein alphabet. It is the Morse Code of genetics. In Morse, the encoding alphabet has just two symbols, "dot" and "dash." To encode English you form groups of dots and dashes to represent each of the twenty-six letters of the written alphabet. The genetic code is neater, in a way— the coding groups are all triplets of the same size— and more complicated, because different groups of symbols (codons) can stand for the same thing. But its function is the same, to relate messages written in two different alphabets.

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans.

This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once.

The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases.

Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 145 4.

Washing clothes is an almost bureaucratic sort of chore.

The procedure is actually quite simple.

First you arrange things into different groups.

Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do.

If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set.

It is important not to overdo things.

It is better to do too few things at once than too many.

In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise.

A mistake can be expensive as well.

At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.

Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life.

It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell.

After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again.

Then they can be put into their appropriate places.

Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated.

However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 147 6.

According to the author of the following paragraph, society is a sick and dying man.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper.

Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories?

There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes.

How much more than Federal are these States!

If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire.

Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of.

What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk?

What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk?

The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization.

On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay.

I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan's Island with a few avenues connecting them.

But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature.

Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid.

Society is always diseased and the best is the most so. continued...

There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures.

I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system.

To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health.

To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author’s viewpoint of humankind. 150 1.

Crick and Brenner sensed that the results probably revealed the nature of the genetic code: the relationship between the nucleotide sequence in DNA (or RNA) and the amino acid sequence in a polypeptide chain. These results would be expected if the genetic code consists of nucleotide bases that are read linearly, three at time, with the sequence of each triplet signifying an amino acid.

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans.

This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once.

The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases.

Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. 151 Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 152

3.

The following paragraph describes a process.

The procedure is actually quite simple.

First you arrange things into different groups.

Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do.

If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set.

It is important not to overdo things.

That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many.

In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise.

A mistake can be expensive as well.

At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.

Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life.

It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell.

After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again.

Then they can be put into their appropriate places.

Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated.

However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 154 5.

The following was written in 1842.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper.

Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories?

There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes.

How much more than Federal are these States!

If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire.

Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of.

What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk?

What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk?

The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization.

On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay.

I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan's Island with a few avenues connecting them.

But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature.

Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid.

Society is always diseased and the best is the most so.

There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. continued..

I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system.

To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health.

To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author’s viewpoint of humankind. 157

It has been found that the genetic code is universal, that is, the same triplet stands for the same amino acid in all organisms from viruses to humans.

This suggests that the genetic code probably evolved only once.

The differences among viruses, bacteria, human beings, and all other living organisms are due not to differences in the kinds of nitrogenous bases found in their DNA, but to variations in the sequential order of these bases.

Different arrangements of triplets along the length of the DNA strand will result in a varying amino-acid sequence in a protein; it is possible to produce an almost infinite number of triplet arrangements in DNA, and thus it is possible to have an endless variety of amino-acid sequences in proteins. Question A:

Explain how the genetic code is thought to work. 159 8.

The procedure Is actually quite simple.

First you arrange things into different groups.

Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do.

If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set.

It is important not to overdo things.

That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many.

In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise.

A mistake can be expensive as well.

At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.

Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life.

It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell.

After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again.

Then they can be put into their appropriate places.

Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated.

However, that is part of life. Question B:

Describe the steps in the process. 161 9.

I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, pokeweed, juniper.

Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories?

There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which no desponding creed recognizes.

How much more than Federal are these States!

If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest would never tire.

Much more is a-doing than Congress wots of.

What journal do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk?

What is transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk?

The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization.

On this side all lands present only the symptoms of decay.

I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District of Columbia and Sullivan's Island with a few avenues connecting them.

But paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which blows over them.

In society you will not find health, but in nature.

Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid.

Society is always diseased and the best is the most so.

There is no scent in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. continued...

I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system.

To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health.

To him who contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can come. Question C:

In as much detail as possible, explain the author’s viewpoint of humankind. CRITERIA FOR SCORING

SCIENCE PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Universality (2) Sequential Order (2)

all organismsevolved infinite endless once (1) number variety of viruses, bacteria of arrange­ amino acid humans, others ments of sequences (.5 each) triplets in proteins (1) (1) 165

CRITERIA FOR SCORING

ARTIFICIAL PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Attributes Steps in Procedure 1 Steps in Procedure 2 simple (.5) arrange into arrange into different groups (1) different groups again (1) no end to need for one group may put into appropriate it (.5) suffice (.5) places (1) do not find facilities (1) repeat cycle (1) overdo (.5) may need to go mistakes elsewhere (.5) can be expensive (.5) better to do too little than too much (.5) 166

CRITERIA FOR SCORING

LITERARY PARAGRAPH

Point values are in parentheses

Society (2) Nature (2) disease (1) health (1) politics (,5 decay (.5) any concrete cure (.5) reference (.5 each— up to 2 points allowed) service berries, pokeweed, juniper book of natural history APPENDIX B

DIAGRAMS OF ORAL RESPONSES TO THE LITERARY PARAGRAPH

167 Class Background 168

H No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: society------, dying winter «=r--- ~~ dying nature living dying summer to winter degraded political organization because society is dying each side the whole world representing the death of society is connected society is dying society, gov't small compared to nature nature ultimate ruler of society too wrapped up in material goods we'll die best society is diseased nothing gives life as nature can restores sick the well know nature's importance memory: not paying enough attention to nature too much attention to material needs society what we're doing...ignoring nature Figure 26

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

It [the target passage] didn't make a lot of sense.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

I don't see relevance to society ------as sick and dying man health society must be bad the sick think nature is bad the well think it’s good if one thinks about beauty of nature, nothing can happen to him memory: society is a sick and dying man

Figure 27

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: people nature dying if all we had was society corrupt (degraded) nature need nature in order not to die in society nature to keep us sick person alive society nature will never hurt a person memory: society is corrupt problems cause a person to become sick in touch with real natural world people become sick society natural world sick and dying society people who realize society is bad are healthy

Figure 28

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: winter refreshed summer seasons politics congress nature political aspect degraded decay Bunker Hill, etc. symptoms of decay not healthful society nature society diseased historical book sick too involved in society beauty nature memory: is ill society nature society degrade

Figure 29

Metaphor Condition 172 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

I realized what he was trying to get at. It [the metaphor] helped me get to the point.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: society heaven, cheap summer glories Federal seasons society,Congress nature society political degraded society death and decay society dying people don't appre­ ciate nature healed by nature society destroys if not for nature we'd all die sickness no fragrance in society book those who appreciate nature won't be disap­ pointed memory: people-society don't appreciate nature society as decaying dying

Figure 30

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: winter heaven cheap summer glories health Federal flowers seasons die political organizations decaying society summer to winter dying dying summer no decay decaying society is harmful nature healthy nature society diseased pines society can't harm natural history society disease politics, Congress sick natural beauty nature won't harm

Figure 31

Metaphor Condition 174 continued...

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) memory: diseased by society Congress politics dying society seasons summer winter winter when things are dying how society is nature diseased nature is answer society is nature society and diseased

Figure 31

Metaphor Condition 175 Class Background FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments

It [the metaphor] automatically made me realize he wasn't too happy about what was going on. It puts a picture in your mind that everything is going downhill.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: winter- dead berries, etc. heaven summer healthy Federal seasons Congress journal politics society is a sick and dying man blast (she related it to nuclear war) diseases nature society read restore sick memory: back to nature corrupt politics society health

Figure 32

Metaphor Condition Class Background 176 FS Prior Knowledge

Comments

He saw nature as dying not due to man's actions.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: winter heaven nature heaven(ly) seasons interest Congress nature political organization death politics nature society nature healthy society diseased nature books, history nature healthy heaven memory: society nature cure need nature society

Figure 33

Metaphor Condition Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge

Comments

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: service berries, etc. heaven Federal changing seasons Congress persimmon, etc. Carolinas, etc. politics society decaying Bunker Hill, etc. society not healthy nature brings life society is diseased society has no scent nature to make him feel better health beauty, no disappointment sick and dying memory: society nature nature book of natural history society not healthy nature healthy

Figure 34

Metaphor Condition 178 Class Background

H Prior Knowledge (H.S. English)

Comments after reading the metaphor

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

winter summer time when written seasons nature summer to winter land nature political decaying nature rehabilitating society, harm nature society diseased nature nature restores health nature, well, sick no harm memory:

society hurts people’s well-being nature society nature wholesome, beautiful society politics

Figure 35

Literal Condition 179 Class Background

H No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

It does make sense - a sick and dying man.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

winter 1842 _ creeds, Federal states seasons Congress, states nature journal seasons degraded politics there must be = land and nature hard times in 1842 land not cheering decay states wind nature society is diseased decay life-everlast ing wholesome scent of pines disease and decay nature fountain of health politics natural beauty memory:

sick decay disease states nature Congress, political aspects

Figure 36

Literal Condition 180 Class Background

H No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

It [the metaphor] ties everything together.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

Congress nature organizations society nature society memory:

society natural things after metaphor:

society is being destroyed destroying man

Figure 37

Literal Condition 181 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

If I would have had this [the metaphor] and then read I would have understood more than just reading it.

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

Bunker Hill, etc. memory:

nature society diseased nature healthy after metaphor then reread:

nature cheap summer glories society, nature Congress political society's diseased sick natural history healthy

Figure 38

Literal Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

summer heavenly creed states seasons political wind nature health not society society nature memory:

source of health nature political world society nature smell pine trees pastures nature society political after metaphor:

society. dying

Figure 39

Literal Condition 183 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary:

winter heaven seasons Congress seasons nature is healthy society is not nature memory:

nature beauty society disease after metaphor:

society is bad

Figure 40

Literal Condition 184 Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

Words from Literal Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle)

summary:

berries, etc. heaven nature states Federal seasons Congress nature (and seasons) Carolina's, etc. decay society corrupted healthy nature, beauty society diseased pines, etc. healthy book, natural history nature, not society fountain of health nature memory:

society nature society nature society harms people

Figure 41

Literal Condition Class Background

H Prior Knowledge (H.S. Literature)

Comments after reading the metaphor

It [the metaphor] emphasizes something I guess I didn't emphasize enough.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle)

summary:

summer Federal politicians Congress degrading politics politics society nature health society corrupt natural history sick nature disease health nature society memory: nature beauty health sickness nature society politics Congress

after metaphor:

society decay nature Figure 42 society Neither Condition Class Background

FS No Prior Knowledge

Comments after reading the metaphor

I can see where this comes from now.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: berries summers Congress political organization society nature memory: society nature beauty after metaphor: society------die

Figure 43

Neither Condition Class Background

FS Prior Knowledge (H.S. Literature)

Comments after reading the metaphor

I think it [the metaphor] confirms how the author feels.

Words from Target Words from Metaphor (tenor) (vehicle) summary: heaven seasons plants, birds summertime seasons political organization nature politics nature politics, politicians society nature health nature society nature book society, politics nature healthier memory: society politics sickness nature healthier nature

Figure 44

Neither Condition 188

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Notes

1. Joseph Williams, November 11, 1986 in a lecture at a University of Chicago Institute, "Hidden Meanings: Critical Thinking and Acculturation: Intellectual Development in Knowledge Communities".