JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 34, 135-150 (1982)

Autumn Leaves and Old Photographs: The Development of

Metaphor Preferences
LISA SILBERSTEIN, HOWARD GARDNER, ERIN PHELPS

Harvard University

AND

ELLEN WINNER

Boston College and Harvard University

In order to determine the development of preferences for different types of

metaphors, a metaphor preferences task was designed. Subjects at seven ages,
from 6 through 20 years, received incomplete sentences followed by metaphorical
and literal completions, and were asked to select their preferred completions.
The pattern of preferences shifted with age. Metaphors based on grounds in-
volving color or shape were preferred by the youngest subjects: metaphors based
on movement or sound were preferred by subjects of intermediate age; and
metaphors based on nonperceptual, conceptual grounds were preferred by the
oldest subjects. At all ages the most frequently chosen metaphors were those
based on a combination of two grounds (e.g., color and shape). Preference for
literal completions declined with age, but there was an increase in literal selec-
tions in the 8th and 10th grades. This study demonstrates the systematic de-
velopment of aesthetic preferences in the domain of figurative language.

As a result of recent research in metaphor, much knowledge has been

obtained about the development of skills in metaphoric production and
comprehension. For instance, we know that children begin to produce

The research reported here was supported by grants from the National Science Foun-
dation (BNS 13099) and the National Institute of Education (G-78-0031). Portions of this
paper were presented at the American Educational Research Association, 1980. We are
grateful to the following individuals for their help: Arnold Lanni, Assistant Superintendent,
Arlington Public Schools; Mary Murphy, Principal, Dallin School, Arlington Public Schools;
Thomas Trevisani, English Department Chairman, Arlington High School; Charles Chris-
tensen, Principal, Arlington Junior High East; Ellen Krim, Director, Lesley-Ellis Preschool;
and the many teachers and students who contributed to this research. We also thank
Margaret McCarthy Herzig and Eve Mendelsohn for their assistance in the conduct of this
research. Reprint requests should be sent to Ellen Winner, Department of Psychology,
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167.
135

0022-0%5/82/040135-16$02.00/0
Copyright 0 1982 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
136 SILBERSTEIN ET AL

metaphors during the initial stages of language acquisition (Billow, I981 ;

Nelson, Rescorla, Gruendel, & Benedict, 1978; Winner, 1979; Winner,
McCarthy, & Gardner, 1980). These early metaphors are often based on
perceptual features of objects, features such as shape (calling a piece of
string a “snake”), color (calling a red and white stop sign a “candy
cane”), or shape and color combined (calling a yellow plastic baseball
bat “corn”) (Winner, 1979). Only in the mid-elementary school years
do children begin to create metaphors based on less obvious, nonper-
ceptual properties such as affective states (calling an angry person a
“volcano”) (Gardner, Winner, Bechhofer, & Wolf, 1978). Moreover,
while young children produce a relatively high number of metaphors in
their spontaneous speech, the frequency of spontaneous metaphoric pro-
duction declines during the middle childhood years (Billow, 1981; Gard-
ner & Winner, 1982; Pollio & Pollio, 1974; Marti, Note 1; Snyder, Note
2). [No decline, however, is found in experimentally elicited metaphoric
production (Winner, McCarthy, Kleinman. & Gardner, 1979).] This de-
cline in spontaneous metaphorical usage has led some observers to de-
scribe the middle and late elementary school years as a conventional
“literal” stage during which children eschew figurative language in favor
of mastering the rules of conventional usage (Gardner et al., 1978; Gard-
ner & Winner, 1982). The spontaneous production of metaphors rises
again in adolescence and adulthood, but this rise occurs most steeply
among those who go on to become writers (Gardner & Winner, 1982).
The developmental course of comprehension is a simpler one: The
ability to understand metaphors increases steadily with age (Billow, 1975;
Reynolds & Ortony, 1980; Pollio & Pickens, 1980; Pollio & Pollio, 1974;
Winner, Rosenstiel, & Gardner, 1976). Paralleling the course of produc-
tion, children are first only able to understand perceptually based met-
aphors; conceptually grounded metaphors are not well understood until
the middle school years (Cicone, Gardner, & Winner, 1981; Winner et
al., 1976, 1979). It is only in the late elementary school years that children
are able to explain the metaphors that they understand.
Although a considerable amount is known about how children come
to make and understand simple metaphors, very little is known about
the kinds of metaphors that children of different ages find appealing. One
study demonstrated that children’s metaphor preferences become in-
creasingly consistent with age (Malgady, 1977). Another study of adult
preferences suggested that the aptness of a metaphor correlates with the
relative positions of the topic (the first term of the metaphor) and the
vehicle (the second term) within their respective semantic spaces (Tour-
angeau & Sternberg, 1981). But the very factor that this study held
constant-the type of similarity between the two terms (the ground)-
may itself determine a metaphor’s appeal. That is, metaphors based on
certain kinds of grounds may prove more or less appealing by virtue of
their ground.
 METAPHOR 137

One approach to understanding the development of metaphoric pref-

erences is to consider the kinds of grounds that children of different ages
find appealing.’ Studies of metaphoric production and comprehension
yield some clues about the kinds of grounds that are likely to be preferred
at different ages. If the developmental course of metaphoric preference
is parallel to comprehension, a preference for more obvious metaphors
(such as ones based on perceptual properties of objects) should precede
a liking for more subtle metaphors (such as ones that are conceptually
based). And if there is, in fact, a conventional “literal” stage, children
in the middle elementary school years should reject metaphors of any
kind, preferring instead more “precise,” literal uses of language.
In the present study, subjects between first grade and college were
given incomplete sentences along with a choice of several metaphorical
endings and one literal ending for each sentence. To test the hypothesis
of a shift from obvious to subtle preferences, metaphorical completions
varied on three dimensions: type of ground on which they were based;
the number of grounds on which they were based; and the salience of
the ground with respect to the topic.
a. Type of ground. Three types of grounds were used in the construc-
tion of items: (1) shape and color represented static-perceptual grounds,
qualities which the senses perceive immediately or in a brief span of
time; (2) sound and movement represented dynamic-perceptual grounds,
properties which are typically experienced over a period of time; and
(3) conceptual grounds were based on abstract, nonperceptual qualities,
either static or dynamic (e.g., calm, permanence, liberation). It was
hypothesized that static-perceptual grounds were the most obvious and
would be preferred by the youngest subjects; dynamic-perceptual grounds
would be preferred by late elementary school subjects; and conceptual
grounds, the least obvious, would be preferred by adolescents and adults.
6. Number ofgrounds. Metaphorical completions were based on either
a single ground or a combination of two grounds. Metaphors based on
only one ground were hypothesized to be less obvious because they are
characterized by greater “tension,” i.e., conceptual distance between
topic and vehicle (Richards, 1936). For example, a metaphorical equation
’ It should be noted that it is difficult to determine with certainty the ground of any
particular metaphor. This is because any two objects share an infinite number of properties
(Goodman, 1972). Thus, while a metaphor equating a string with a snake may appear to
be grounded simply on shape, it is certainly possible that this equation is also based on
other shared properties [e.g., location (both lie on the grass), texture (the string may be
slimy), or movement (the string may move in water in a snake-like fashion)]. Thus, any
division of metaphors according to ground is open to challenge. Nonetheless, on the basis
of the developmental literature on metaphor, it is possible to anticipate some consistent
trends in the development of preferences for different types of grounds. If these predictions
are supported, support will be cbtained for the a priori classification of metaphors according
to ground.
138 SILBERSTEIN ET AL.

of a snowflake and a twirling ballerina, which is based on a single ground

(movement), appears to possess more tension than an equation of a
snowflake and a falling paper airplane, which is based on two grounds
(movement and color). It was predicted that preference for metaphors
based on dual grounds would decline with age, reflecting an increasing
appreciation for less obvious, more tense, metaphors.
c. Salience of ground with respect to the topic. Metaphorical com-
pletions were constructed so that either high or low salient properties
of the topics were represented by the grounds. A salient property of an
object is one of its most obvious and distinctive aspects, one which is
most likely to be listed first if people are asked to describe this object
(cf. Ortony, 1979). For instance the color of a stop sign is probably a
more salient property than its shape.’
High and low salient properties of each topic were empirically deter-
mined (as will be described in more detail below) and grounds were
constructed accordingly. It was hypothesized that a preference for met-
aphors based on highly salient properties of the topic would give way
to an appreciation for those based on less salient properties of the topic.
To test the hypothesis of a “literal” stage in which children prefer
literal to metaphorical language, literal completions were included with
metaphorical ones for each item. It was predicted that preference for
metaphorical over literal completions would follow a U-shaped curve,
declining during the mid-elementary school years but increasing again
in high school and adulthood.
METHOD
Subjects
One hundred and thirty-eight subjects (with approximately equal num-
bers of boys and girls at each age) participated in this study. Fifteen
subjects in each of grades 3 (age 8), 5 (age IO), 6 (age ll), 8 (age 13),
10 (age 15), 12 (age 17), and college (age 20) received a written version
of the task; and 15 subjects in grade 1 (age 6) and 6 subjects in each of
grades 3, 5, and 6 received an oral version of the task. The two versions

’ Ortony (1979) has argued that the ground of a metaphor links a highly salient feature
of the vehicle and a low salient feature of the topic. He argues that sentences which link
two objects on the basis of highly salient properties of each are not metaphors but are
literal comparisons. While we accept the point that literal comparisons are often based on
highly salient properties of two objects (e.g., “A candle is like a torch”), we also believe
that metaphorical comparisons can be similarly constructed. For example, in “Clouds are
cotton balls,” the properties of whiteness and fluffiness are highly salient to both terms.
What distinguishes metaphors based on highly salient properties of the topic is that they
are more “obvious” than those based on low salient properties. Thus, a metaphor based
on the color of a stop sign is likely to be more obvious, more immediately apprehendable.
than one based on its shape.
 METAPHOR 139

were employed because it was necessary to administer an oral test to

the youngest children. The oral version was administered to the six
subjects in each of grades 3, 5, and 6 in order to determine whether
mode of representation affected performance.
Subjects were drawn from schools serving a primarily middle-class
population, and were selected at random from their classrooms. College
subjects, whose fields of concentration represented a cross section of
academic disciplines, were randomly selected from an undergraduate
psychology course.
Materials
A metaphor preferences task, consisting of 25 items, was constructed.
Each item consisted of an incomplete sentence followed by five possible
endings. Seven kinds of completions were rotated throughout the task.
Five kinds of completions yielded metaphorical sentences, each based
on a different ground: (1) shape, (2) color, (3) sound, (4) movement, and
(5) conceptual. The sixth kind of completion was based on a combination
of any two grounds from 1 to 5. The seventh type of completion yielded
a nonmetaphorical, literal sentence. Completions were equal in length,
and their order was randomized across items. Sample items are contained
in Table 1. The full set of items used is available from the authors on
request.
As part of the task construction, 15 adults were each given 25 met-
aphors and were asked to specify their grounds. Through this method,
the ground of each of the 125 metaphors (25 items x 5 completions)
was assessed by three judges. No metaphorical completion was included
on the task if judges failed to agree on its ground.
Four of the five completions for each item yielded metaphorical
grounds, so that each single ground appeared on 20 items. The remaining
choice on each item consisted of either a literal completion (12 items)
or a combination ground (13 items). The two grounds within the com-
bination ground were drawn from all of the five single grounds, and the
two grounds appearing in a combination ground were always offered as
single metaphorical grounds on that item.
During pilot testing, several anomalous choices (i.e., neither meta-
phorical nor literal completions of the sentence) were included in the
task in order to ascertain whether children ever made their selections
randomly or on the basis of the vehicle alone, regardless of its relation
to the topic. Since no anomalous completions were selected during the
course of extensive piloting, they were not included in the final task.
In order to investigate whether particularly salient properties of a topic
guide preference for grounds, a measure of salient characteristics was
obtained for the 25 topics. Ten adult judges were asked to decide which
of the five types of properties (shape, color, sound, movement, concep-
140 SILBERSTEIN ET AL.

TABLE 1
SAMPLE ITEMS

The popped red ballon is

- a limp washcloth (shape)
- a bottle of ketchup (color)
- a washed away sandcastle (conceptual: impermanence)
- an empty auditorium after a concert (sound)
- an apple peel (combination: color and shape)
A wave in the ocean is
- a curl of hair (shape)
- a burst of energy in a tired runner (conceptual: a surge or increase)
- a stack of dishes crashing (sound)
- a lion springing in attack (movement)
- water that goes up and down (literal)
The rattle snake was
- a long rope (shape)
__ soap sliding along the bathtub (movement)
- a hissing kettle (sound)
- a storm cloud (conceptual: impending danger)
- an animal in the grass (literal)
A traffic jam is .
__ many cars in one place (literal)
- a barnyard of noisy animals (sound)
- getting your zipper stuck half-way (conceptual: obstruction)
- dominoes in a row (shape)
__ a creeping caterpillar (movement)
The streetlights along the dark highway are
- fireflies in the air (color)
__ lightbulbs on tall poles (literal)
- a connect-the-dots puzzle (shape)
- guards standing still at attention (movement)
__ lonely people (conceptual: separation)
The volcano is
- a very angry man (conceptual: loss of control)
- tomato sauce boiling over a pot (combination: color and conceptual)
- a bright fire truck (color)
- a roaring lion (sound)
__ a whale spouting water (movement)
The snowflake is
- a gentle kiss (conceptual: delicacy)
__ a twirling ballerina (movement)
- a falling paper airplane (combination: color and movement)
- a silent street (sound)
__~~_ -~..
 METAPHOR 141

tual) were salient properties of each topic. Choices were marked as being
salient for one or more grounds when 80% or more of the judges agreed
on the salient characteristic(s) of a topic (e.g., color and movement were
deemed salient for fulling autumn leaves). In 17 of the 25 items, at least
one of the choices offered was marked as salient with respect to the
topic.
Procedure
Subjects were told that poems ofteninvolve “interesting and different
names for things” and that the experimenters wanted to find out what
kinds of poems people like best. In order to introduce the task, the
experimenter then read aloud a sample incomplete sentence with seven
different completions, articulating for the subjects the ground of each
comparison.
In both oral and written administrations of the task, the experimenter
read each item aloud twice as a series of five complete sentences. For
each item, subjects were asked to select the completion they liked best.
The choices were then read again, and subjects were asked to choose
their second favorite. In the oral version, children were seen individually.
Subjects given the written version were tested as a group in their
classrooms.
In addition to indicating their preferences, subjects were asked to state
or record the grounds of the completions that they selected. For example,
after choosing the metaphor “Falling autumn leaves, are old photo-
graphs,” the subject was asked, “Why would you say that falling autumn
leaves are old photographs? How are they alike?” This questioning pro-
cedure made it possible to determine whether subjects perceived the
ground of a metaphor to be the same as that designated by the adult
judges.
Scoring
Responses were scored in two ways. First, the percentage of times
each type of completion was chosen out of the number of times it ap-
peared on the task was tabulated for each subject. Second, in order to
investigate whether a subject chose a completion with a different ground
in mind than ours, responses were also scored according to the subjects’
explanations of the ground. For example, a subject might choose Fulling
autumn leaves are old photographs and explain that “old photographs
turn yellow like leaves.” In such a case, the response would be scored
as “color.” This method of scoring was carried out by two judges who
achieved 94% agreement. Because of the high task demands of written
responses for the younger children, only those elementary school children
in the oral condition were scored in this way. From eighth grade through
college, subjects’ written responses were evaluated in this way. In order
142 SILBERSTEIN ET AL.

to code all of the responses, two additional scoring categories proved

necessary: (1) metonymic (associative) links between topic and vehicle
(e.g., for Falling autumn leaves are old photographs, “you can take a
picture of leaves”), and (2) inability to articulate a rationale (e.g., “I
don’t know” or merely repeating the topic and vehicle).

RESULTS
Type and Number of Grounds Preferred
A comparison of the effect of the mode of presentation for subjects
in grades 3, 5, and 6 revealed no significant differences in the ANOVAs
described below for any ground, whether first choice alone or first and
second choices summed was the dependent variable. Consequently, sub-
jects in both conditions are included in the following analyses, as are
the first graders in the oral condition and the subjects in eighth grade
through college who received the written version.
In order to evaluate the interaction of age and ground, a set of non-
independent analyses of variance was performed on the percentage of
times each kind of completion was chosen as a first choice. At the same
time, the linearity of age differences was tested using orthogonal trend
analysis, with the coefficients adjusted for unequal age intervals (Robson,
1959). Both types of tests were also performed using summed first and
second choices as the dependent variable. Because similar results were
obtained, only the results for first choice are reported here. The results
of these analyses and of Newman-Keuls post hoc tests are presented
in Table 2. Clear age trends emerged from these analyses.
As predicted, preferences shifted from static-perceptual grounds (shape
and color) to dynamic-perceptual grounds (movement and sound) to con-
ceptual grounds. Combination grounds were preferred at all ages over
any single ground (except for first graders, who showed an equal pref-
erence for shape metaphors). Literal completions declined with age, but
increased in the 8th and 10th grades.
As a further test of age trends, the preferred ground of each subject
was determined. All but nine subjects demonstrated a preference for one
type of ground over all others, and these nine subjects (who chose two
or more grounds at equally high frequencies) were excluded from this
analysis. A log-linear analysis (Goodman, 1970) was performed in order
to make comparisons similar to those reported above for the percentage
use of each ground. Again, the linearity of age trends was evaluated. In
order to provide sufficient cell sizes, the static-perceptual grounds, color
and shape, were collapsed into one category, as were the dynamic-per-
ceptual grounds, sound and movement. In addition, pairs of grades were
collapsed (l-3, 5-6, 8-10, 12-college). The collapsed data are shown
in Table 3.
 METAPHOR 143

As before, age proved significant (x2 = 45.60, df = 12, p -C .OOl),

and the linear trends show a significant decrease with age in preference
for static-perceptual grounds (t = -2.13, df = 128, p < .05) and a
significant increase with age in preference for conceptual grounds (t
= 2.82, df = 128, p < .Ol). As Table 3 shows, however, there is
considerable variability in preference within each grade pair, suggesting
the presence of individual differences in metaphor preferences in addition
to systematic age differences.
Salience
A one-way ANOVA was performed on the number of summed first
and second choices based on salient properties of the topic. In this
analysis, age proved significant [F(7, 137) = 4.135, p <.OOll. First and
third graders chose fewer salient grounds than fifth and sixth graders,
with older subjects at an intermediate level (Newman-Keuls, p < .05).

Explication of Grounds
The grounds articulated by subjects in grades l-6 in the oral admin-
istration of the task were compared to the grounds assigned to the met-
aphors by the adult judges. Agreement between the two sets of scores
increased over age from 62% in first grade to 74% in sixth grade. The
increased concurrence resulted from several factors: a decrease in the
number of times a subject proved unable to offer an explication; an
increased ability to articulate both grounds of a combination metaphor;
and fewer associative, nonmetaphorical links between the two terms,
especially in conceptual metaphors. From eighth grade through college,
subjects gave the same ground as the judges on 84% or more of the
metaphors.
Examination of explications from first grade through college revealed
that even the youngest children encountered little difficulty explicating
perceptual grounds, whether static (color and shape) or dynamic (sound
and movement). However, when first and third graders chose conceptual
metaphors (e.g., Falling autumn leaves are old photographs}, they of-
fered appropriate conceptual explications only one-fifth of the time. The
rest of the time they divided their responses equally between positing
associative connections (“Sometimes you take pictures of leaves,“) or
perceptual ones (“Leaves land in a pile, and so do old pictures, because
they get messy over time”). By fifth grade, children were able to explicate
two-thirds of their conceptual selections appropriately; with age, these
explications became increasingly articulate. For instance, a tenth grader
wrote, “Autumn leaves and old photos both represent something that
was once alive and has now become old, faded, and decaying-both
seem lost and sad.”
 TABLE 2
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PREFERENCES FOR GROUNDS: MEAN PERCENTAGES AND ANOVA RESULTS
___~
Grade

Completion 1 3 5 6 8 10 12 C
type (n = 15) (n = 21) (n = 21) (n = 21) (n = 15) (n = IS) (n = 15) (n = 15) ANOVA results
.-~ ___~~___~ ~ ~__
Shape 27 20 27 18 19 16 16 17 Overall F(7, 130) = 4.13, p < ,001
Linear F(1, 130) = 16.67, p < .OOl
Newman-Keuls: 1, 5 > 6, 10, 12,
C (3, 8 intermediate),b p < .05

Color 19 18 16 19 11 6 6 8 Overall F(7, 130) = 6.81, p < .OOl

Linear F(1, 130) = 36.18, p < .OOl
Newman-Keuls: 1, 3, 5, 6 > 10,
12, C (8 intermediate), p S .05
Sound 11 15 16 23 24 18 18 19 Overall F(7, 130) = 4.87, p < .OOl
Linear F(1, 130) = 8.49, p < .Ol
Newman-Keuls: 6, 8, > 1, 3,5 (10,
12, C intermediate), p c .05
Movement 14 20 24 23 22 17 25 22 Overall F(7, 130) = 2.31, p < .05
Linear F(1, 130) = 3.90, ns
Newman-Keuls: no significant pair-
wise differences
Conceptual 9 10 12 11 25 24 27 31 Overall F(7, 130) = 13.36. p < .OO]
LinearF(1, 130) = 81.07, p < .OOl
Newman-Keuls: 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, <
10, 12, c, p s .05
Combination 27 30 31 34 27 34 38 33 Overall F(7, 130) = 1.34, ns
Linear F(1, 130) = 4.13, p < .05
Newman-Keuls: no significant pair-
wise differences
Literal 44 37 18 15 26 28 12 10 Overall F(7, 130) = 5.20, p < .OOl
Linear F(1, 130) = 20.52, p < .OOl
Newman-Keuls: 1, 3, > 5, 6, 12,
C (8, 10 intermediate), p S .05

a Numbers refer to the percentage of times particular grounds were chosen out of the total number of times these grounds appeared.
b Subjects in grades 1 and 5 chose significantly more shape metaphors than subjects in grades 6, 10, 12, and college (C), while subjects in grades E
3 and 8 selected shape metaphors at an intermediate frequency.
146 SILBERSTEIN ET AL.

TABLE 3
CONTINGENCY TABLE OF NUMBER OF SUBJECTS IN EACH GRADE PREFERRING EACH GROUND

Ground

Static- Dynamic-
Grade perceptual perceptual Conceptual Literal Combination Total
1, 3 6 2 0 16 8 30
5, 6 8 6 I 8 18 36
8, 10 3 1 2 9 12 25
12, c 0 2 11 4 12 26
Total 17 11 14 35 50 117

DISCUSSION
In addition to shedding some light on the relationship between me-
taphoric production, comprehension, and preference, the results reveal
the development of preferences for different metaphorical grounds, and
for literal vs metaphorical language.
The hypothesized shift of preferences from “obvious” to “subtle”
metaphors was evident in the grounds preferred throughout development.
The metaphorical grounds which grade school children initially find ap-
pealing are the static-perceptual properties of shape and color, grounds
which are among the earliest metaphors that children themselves produce
(Winner, 1979). Concurrent with evidence that color gives way to form
as a basis for classification (Bruner, Olver, & Greenfield, 1966), shape
appears to be an important and sufficiently interesting feature of objects
to also remain a moderately appealing ground for metaphors at later
ages. Color, on the other hand, may be too superficial or accidental a
characteristic to satisfy adult aesthetic standards. The developing ap-
preciation for dynamic-perceptual grounds reflects a shift away from
grounds based on strictly visual, static, relatively constant features of
an object, toward ones based on more abstract and transient properties.
This shift continues as preferences move to conceptual grounds.
Contrary to hypothesis, combination grounds did not reflect the de-
velopmental shift in preferences. Combination grounds were strongly
preferred across the age spectrum. The clear preference for combination
grounds over any single ground is especially notable since it pertained
to all combinations of grounds. There are several possible explanations
for this finding. It may be that the number of properties shared by a
topic and vehicle is not an index of a metaphor’s degree of subtlety and
tension. Or perhaps it is only metaphors based on more than two grounds
which are low in tension and subtlety. It is also possible that demand
characteristics enhanced the selections of combination grounds: such
grounds require more explanation, and “more” may well be perceived
 METAPHOR 147

as desirable by experimental subjects. And finally, given the difficulty

of specifying the precise number of features which two elements share
(Goodman, 1972), our analysis may have been incorrect: that is, meta-
phors which were allegedly based on dual grounds may have been per-
ceived as singly grounded, or vice versa.
Also contrary to hypothesis, the tendency to favor grounds based on
salient topic properties did not decline, but rather increased in the fifth
and sixth grades. Overall, it appears that changes in aesthetic preferences
are based more on the type of ground (e.g., shape vs movement) than
on the salience of the ground with respect to its topic. The increased
appeal of salient grounds in the late grade school years may reflect some
aspect of the “literal” concerns often attributed to this period (Gardner
and Winner, 1982; Gardner et al., 1978). Perhaps paralleling their de-
velopment as nonegocentric communicators (Krauss & Glucksberg, 1969;
Piaget, 1955), children of this age frequently expressed an interest in
“conveying the most information” through their selections. A topic’s
salient trait may be seen as its most relevant property and hence, perhaps,
the type of information which should be highlighted in a metaphor. It
should be noted, however, that what younger children deem as salient
may be different from what adults judge as salient. Thus, it is possible
that younger children were choosing grounds based on salient topic prop-
erties just as often as older children, although their choices were based
on properties which adults consider low in salience.
The hypothesized increase, during grade school, in the proclivity for
literal completions was not found. The youngest subjects preferred literal
over metaphorical completions, and grade school subjects then dem-
onstrated a decreased attraction to literal completions. This decline sug-
gests that when encouraged by the “rules of the game” to be meta-
phorical rather than literal, appreciation for metaphorical language
increases with age. A comparison to the domain of metaphor production
may prove illuminating here. When requested to produce metaphors in
an experimental setting, performance increases linearly with age (Winner
et al., 1979). However, in spontaneous speech, metaphoric production
declines during the grade school years (Billow, 1981; Gardner & Winner,
1982; Marti, Note 1; Snyder, Note 2). An analagous difference may well
exist between these experimentally elicited metaphor preferences and
preferences for metaphorical vs literal language outside of an experi-
mental setting.
An unexpected rise in literal selections occurred in adolescence. Strong
literal preferences distinguished one-quarter of the 8th and 10th graders
from the rest of their classmates, who displayed no rise in literalism. It
is possible that this represents a regression to an earlier pattern of pref-
erences (cf. Carey, Diamond, & Woods, 1980). However, unlike the
youngest children who preferred literal completions, 8th and 10th graders
148 SILBERSTEIN ET AL.

demonstrated an explicit awareness of what they were rejecting, often

articulating a defiance of the nonliteral and announcing a preference for
unadorned modes of expression. It may well be that just as the grade
school child is absorbed in learning and obeying the “rules of the game,”
the adolescent is strongly invested in defying, or explicitly testing, the
“rules.” As one 10th grader wrote, “I like to be more exact about things
and more direct.” If such a literal preference is part of the young ad-
olescent’s personal indentity and self-presentation, it is a seemingly tran-
sient one-for by 12th grade and college “litetahsm” has again diminished.
A comparison of the results obtained here with those of studies of
metaphor comprehension suggests that children may understand a par-
ticular kind of metaphor quite some time before they like this same
metaphor. While fifth graders typically understand conceptual metaphors
(Winner et al., 1976), and while children of this age were able to explain
the conceptual metaphors that they chose on the present metaphor pref-
erence task, it was not until 10th grade that children showed a general
preference for conceptual metaphors. Thus, appreciation of metaphors
may lag considerably behind their comprehension. In order to confirm
the suggested decalage between comprehension and appreciation, how-
ever, it would be necessary to assess comprehension of all metaphors
on the preference task, to determine understanding of metaphors not
chosen as well as those chosen. A longitudinal design would enable
further confirmation and insight into this possible decalage.
A point about task performance deserves mention. Across the wide
age span, subjects were seriously engaged in the task. Evidence that
subjects of all ages responded consistently to the multiple-choice task
inheres in the fact that subjects rarely chose grounds which they could
not explain. Moreover, preferences of the younger subjects were no
more random than selections of the older subjects, a finding which differs
from previous research (Malgady, 1977). Indeed, the fact that subjects
at all ages responded consistently provides support for the a priori clas-
sification of metaphors in terms of ground which was used in this task.
The results of this study help to clarify the relation between the pro-
duction, comprehension, and appreciation of metaphors. First of all, as
has been found with production and comprehension, metaphoric pref-
erences are characterized by systematic age trends, and are not simply
a function of idiosyncratic taste. Second, although appreciation may lag
behind comprehension in time, the sequence of types of metaphors pre-
ferred with age mirrors both comprehension and production. Just as
children understand and produce perceptually based metaphors before
conceptually grounded ones, so children also appreciate perceptual met-
aphors before they begin to like conceptual ones. However, unlike in
the case of the spontaneous production of metaphor, in which children
 METAPHOR 149

become increasingly literal during the grade school years, literalism in

preferences seems to occur considerably later, during the adolescent
years. But, as discussed earlier, this finding may well reflect the exper-
imental task demands: elementary school children may have recognized
that metaphorical rather than literal choices were called for and thus
responded accordingly; and adolescents may have acted to defy rather
than conform to the rules.
The developmental pattern of metaphor preferences suggested by these
data reflects a general evolution in the child’s perception of the world.
On diverse tasks, such as those devised by Piaget, young children focus
solely on perceptual appearances of stimuli and then with age become
capable of transcending perceptual cues to construe events on a con-
ceptual plane. Research in the domain of social cognition also indicates
that children shift from categorizing people on the basis of external,
perceptual features to categorizations based on more abstract, nonper-
ceptual, and psychological facets (Livesley & Bromley, 1973; Peevers
& Secord, 1973). Thus, development in metaphor preferences partakes
of basic developmental trends.
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REFERENCE NOTES
1. Marti, E. La pens&e analogique chez l’enfant de 2 a 7 ans: Etude genetique des liaisons
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RECEIVED: April 21, 1981; REVISED: August 20, 1981, October 16, 1981.