Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning

The way we talk about complex and abstract ideas is suffused with metaphor. In five experiments, we explore how these metaphors influence the way that we reason about complex issues and forage for further information about them. We find that even the subtlest instantiation of a metaphor (via a single word) can have a powerful influence over how people attempt to solve social problems like crime and how they gather information to make “well-informed” decisions. Interestingly, we find that the influence of the metaphorical framing effect is covert: people do not recognize metaphors as influential in their decisions; instead they point to more “substantive” (often numerical) information as the motivation for their problem-solving decision. Metaphors in language appear to instantiate frame-consistent knowledge structures and invite structurally consistent inferences. Far from being mere rhetorical flourishes, metaphors have profound influences on how we conceptualize and act with respect to important societal issues. We find that exposure to even a single metaphor can induce substantial differences in opinion about how to solve social problems: differences that are larger, for example, than pre-existing differences in opinion between Democrats and Republicans

The Widening Information Gap between High and Low Education Groups: Knowledge Acquisition from Online vs. Print News

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Mass Communications/Telecommunications, 2008The primary purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the potentially widening gap in information acquisition across different educational groups, related to traditional print versus online news formats. Newspaper readership is declining and simultaneously the number of online news users is growing. In democratic societies the ability of new media formats to deliver cognitively accessible information to all citizens is indeed a pressing issue. This dissertation adopted the strengths of both survey and experimental traditions of knowledge gap research. Specifically, this study follows in the survey research tradition by emphasizing social structural aspects of the knowledge gap phenomenon. At the same time, this research used controlled experimental procedures and an assortment of memory measures to rigorously investigate the formation of knowledge gaps. The experimental procedure also allowed for focus on a much neglected dimension of knowledge gain, namely news exposure preferences (public affairs vs. entertainment) of citizens. To this effect, news exposure was examined using a behavioral measure, which is more rigorous than the heavily relied on self-report measure. The findings show strong support of the existence of knowledge gaps. First, participants in the higher education group (some postgraduate education) outperformed the lower education group (no more than a high school education) in terms of information gain, particularly for public affairs information, despite the similar news exposure pattern across the two education groups. The strong education effect on public affairs knowledge acquisition is therefore robust beyond the influence of news exposure levels. Second, newspaper readers exposed themselves to more public affairs news than online news users and therefore acquired more public affairs information than online news users. Third--and most important and alarming--comprehending public affairs news stories varied most prominently between the high and the low education groups in the online news condition. As such, the findings of this dissertation produced evidence that supports the main thesis of a widening information gap between high and low education groups, driven more so by new media than traditional print media use. In conclusion, emerging media are likely to exacerbate the existing information gaps among citizens with different socio-structural backgrounds

Conventional metaphors elicit greater real-time engagement than literal paraphrases or concrete sentences

Conventional metaphors (e.g., a firm grasp on an idea) are extremely common. A possible explanation for their ubiquity is that they are more engaging, evoking more focused attention, than their literal paraphrases (e.g., a good understanding of an idea). To evaluate whether, when, and why this may be true, we created a new database of 180 English sentences consisting of conventional metaphors, literal paraphrases, and concrete descriptions (e.g., a firm grip on a doorknob). Extensive norming matched differences across sentence types in complexity, plausibility, emotional valence, intensity, and familiarity of the key phrases. Then, using pupillometry to study the time course of metaphor processing, we predicted that metaphors would elicit greater event-evoked pupil dilation compared to other sentence types. Results confirmed the predicted increase beginning at the onset of the key phrase and lasting seconds beyond the end of the sentence. When metaphorical and literal sentences were compared directly in survey data, participants judged metaphorical sentences to convey “richer meaning,” but not more information. We conclude that conventional metaphors are more engaging than literal paraphrases or concrete sentences in a way that is irreducible to difficulty or ease, amount of information, short-term lexical access, or downstream inferences

Effects of Subtitled Video During Transactional Task Practice on Oral Communicative Performance of Fifth Semester College Students of French Learning With Multimedia Courseware.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of subtitled video during transactional task practice on oral communicative performance of fifth semester college students of French learning with multimedia courseware. Task practice was provided by the multimedia package, Practicing Spoken French (PSF) specifically designed by the researcher for this study. The package, which integrates HyperCard and videodisc technologies, allows for individually customized practice of two video-based oral tasks, description and narration. Drawing on Salomon\u27s theories about the effects of media coding elements and perception of task on cognition and learning, the study used a 2 x 2 factorial design with two levels of subtitling (subtitles, no-subtitles), and two levels of oral transactional tasks (higher, lower). Forty-four fifth semester college students of French were randomly assigned to one of four experimental treatments--subtitles/lower-level task, no-subtitles/lower-level task, subtitles/higher-level task, no-subtitles/higher-level task. Students under each treatment were required to participate in two experimental sessions to complete the four stages of the two practice tasks of their choice--watching a video segment, answering video-related questions, drafting a description or a narration following the video information, and recording an up to 3-minute oral sample, based on what they had drafted. The dependent variable, oral communicative performance, was assessed by applying four six-point rating scales (Effectiveness, Accuracy, Organization, and Fluency) to the subjects\u27 oral samples. Subjects in the subtitles treatments scored significantly higher on the oral performance measure and had significantly better attitudes than subjects in the no-subtitles treatments. The effects of task level and the interaction of this variable with subtitling were insignificant. However, higher-level task subjects outperformed their lower-level task counterparts in the two experimental sessions. Also in both sessions, subtitles/higher-level task subjects obtained the highest scores on the oral performance measure. Insights on CALL issues such as locus of control, time on task, learning environment, word processing, and attitudes were offered, as well as conclusions and implications for speaking assessment, CALL design, and future research

Kollegiale Beratungsformen

Die Dissertation untersucht die verschiedenen Entwicklungslinien, Konzepte und Einsatzmöglichkeiten kollegialer Beratung und erläutert sie exemplarisch. Eingebunden wird diese informelle als auch arbeitsplatznahe Lernform in die Debatte um Kompetenzentwicklung und die Perspektiven der betrieblichen Weiterbildung. Dabei diskutiert die Autorin kollegiale Beratung im Kontext wesentlicher Lerntheorien wie Behaviorismus, Kognitivismus und gemäßigtem Konstruktivismus. Zwei aufeinander aufbauende Untersuchungen zeigen die Relevanz kollegialer Beratung für berufliches Handeln im Spannungsfeld von Kompetenzentwicklung, Lernen und betrieblichen sowie gruppendynamischen Prozessen auf. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass kollegiale Beratungsformen in der betrieblichen Weiterbildung immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnen werden

Storytelling im Journalismus

The strategic use of storytelling in public relations and marketing has been increasing over the years and lately found its way into journalism as well. Acknowledging this development the paper addresses the question to what extent storytelling may improve the recipient’s ability of understanding and learning from journalistic texts.In a first step the question is raised, what constitutes narrativity and in which forms it manifests in journalistic texts. The result is a typology that distinguishes between a more or less narrative account of events and the narrative presentation of abstract information. The second part of the paper collected and discussed numerous approaches and empirical evidence concerning processing and effects of narrative text. Even though, the emphasis is on understanding and knowledge acquisition other processes and effects like attention, entertainment or persuasion are considered as well. These general approaches for text processing are transferred to the reception of journalistic texts in the third part of the paper and thus providing a framework of narrative effects in journalistic coverage. The framework distinguishes not only different types of narratives in journalism but also different types of recipients.In conclusion the theoretical as well as the empirical evidence suggest: The inverted pyramid as the classic form of presenting news regarding events in a non-narrative fashion fails for less educated people with only little previous knowledge on the topic. These recipients benefit from a narrative news story in terms of understanding, knowledge acquisition, and enjoyment. Contrary storytelling as a strategy of conveying abstract information packaged within a story seems rather unsuitable. Narrative presentation might be able to improve understanding and learning of relevant information in individual cases but involves a high risk of distraction and confusion. In many cases the recipient will concentrate automatically on the less important background story and ignore the relevant but abstract target information.Der strategische Einsatz von Geschichten hat vor allem in PR und Marketing an Bedeutung gewonnen, spielt zunehmend aber auch im Journalismus eine Rolle. Die Dissertation geht der Frage nach, inwieweit Storytelling dazu geeignet ist, dem Rezipienten das Verstehen von und Lernen aus journalistischen Texten zu erleichtern. In einem ersten Schritt wird diskutiert, was Narrativität ist und in welchen Formen sie sich in journalistischen Texten äußert. Daraus resultiert eine Typologie journalistischer Informationstexte, die grundlegend unterscheidet zwischen der narrativen Darstellung von Ereignisberichten und der Rolle der Narrativität bei der Vermittlung abstrakter Hintergrundinformationen. Im zweiten Teil der Dissertation werden zahlreiche Ansätze und Befunde zur Verarbeitung und Wirkung narrativer Texte disziplinübergreifend zusammengetragen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf der kognitionspsychologischen Beschäftigung mit Verstehen und Wissensaneignung. Weitere Rezeptionsprozesse und –folgen wie Aufmerksamkeit, Unterhaltung oder Persuasion werden aber ebenfalls berücksichtigt. Die Übertragung dieser allgemeinen Ansätze konkret auf die Rezeption journalistischer Beiträge erfolgt im dritten Teil der Arbeit in Form eines Frameworks der Wirkungen narrativer Berichterstattung. Das Framework unterscheidet neben mehreren Formen von Narrativität auf Stimulusseite auch verschiedene Rezipiententypen.Für Ereignisberichte (invertierte Pyramide vs. narrative Nachrichtengeschichte) zeigt sich, dass die invertierte Pyramide nur für Personen mit hoher Bildung und viel Vorwissen zum Thema geeignet ist. Wer wenig zum Thema weiß und selten Nachrichten rezipiert, kommt mit der narrativen Nachrichtengeschichte deutlich besser zurecht. Geht es hingegen um die Vermittlung abstrakter Hintergrundinformationen, so ist Storytelling eher wenig geeignet. Zwar kann eine narrative Vermittlung im Einzelfall tatsächlich Verstehen und Behalten relevanter Informationen verbessern, die Gefahr der Ablenkung und Verwirrung ist aber groß: Häufig konzentriert sich der Rezipient automatisch auf die eigentlich unwichtige Rahmenhandlung und ignoriert die wichtigen Zielinformationen

Kollegiale Beratungsformen

Die Dissertation untersucht die verschiedenen Entwicklungslinien, Konzepte und Einsatzmöglichkeiten kollegialer Beratung und erläutert sie exemplarisch. Eingebunden wird diese informelle als auch arbeitsplatznahe Lernform in die Debatte um Kompetenzentwicklung und die Perspektiven der betrieblichen Weiterbildung. Dabei diskutiert die Autorin kollegiale Beratung im Kontext wesentlicher Lerntheorien wie Behaviorismus, Kognitivismus und gemäßigtem Konstruktivismus. Zwei aufeinander aufbauende Untersuchungen zeigen die Relevanz kollegialer Beratung für berufliches Handeln im Spannungsfeld von Kompetenzentwicklung, Lernen und betrieblichen sowie gruppendynamischen Prozessen auf. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass kollegiale Beratungsformen in der betrieblichen Weiterbildung immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnen werden