The Psychological Reality Of Metaphor Between Moral Concept And Vertical Space

In this study,we tried to provide some evidence for psychological realness of vertical space metaphor of Chinese moral concepts by measuring the ERP.Through two opposite mapping directions,that is from the source domain to the target domain and from the target domain to the source domain,the possibility was studied.In experiment 1, after judging the valence of moral words, subjects were asked to identify English letters on different vertical space(up or down) as quickly as possible.The experimental results show that the trials the letters presented on metaphor congruent locations(e.g.,after showing moral words the letters up on the screen or after showing immoral words the letters down on the screen) can activate a higher peak of N1 than the trials the letters presented on metaphor incongruent locations(e.g.,after showing moral words the letters down on the screen or after showing immoral words the letters up on the screen).It’s suggesting that the process of the judgment of moral valence can make the attention of the subjects move in the direction of the corresponding image schema.In experiment 2, subjects were asked to judge the valence of moral concepts on different vertical space(up or down) as quickly as possible.The experimental results show that when the moral words presented UP on the screen,the reaction time is shorter,and when the moral concepts presented on metaphor incongruent locations(e.g.,showing the moral words down on the screen,or the immoral words up on the screen),these trials could activate higher N2 and N400 peak and average amplitude.The result shows that the vertical space impacts on processing of moral concepts.The results of the two experiment show that the vertical space metaphor of Chinese moral concepts has a psychological realness,and the effect of this conceptual metaphor is bidirectional, that is,the vertical space impacts on the processing of moral concepts,and the processing of moral concepts can also make the attention of the subjects move in the direction of the corresponding vertical space position.And the impact of space position on the processing of moral concepts mainly reflects on the moral words, this may be due to the Chinese traditional culture, also can be explained by polar theory.