The Developmental Change of Proverb Comprehension with and without Context

Park, Jeong Hee; Lim, JongAh

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2011;16(4): 559-569.

Jeong Hee Park^` , and JongAh Lim^`

박정희(Jeong Hee Park)| 임종아(JongAh Lim)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
In the present study, the developmental change of comprehension with and without context in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood was investigated.
Method
A total of 160 subjects participated in the present study, with 40 subjects per group. The groups consisted of 6th graders in elementary school, children in the second year of middle school, adolescents in the first year of high school, and adults in their 20s. The subjects read lists of proverb sentences and, for each sentence, were given four choices of interpretation which included an appropriate interpretation, plausible figurative interpretation, implausible figurative interpretation, and literal interpretation of the proverb. The four choices of interpretation were presented as a proverb isolation condition and as a short story in the context condition.
Results
A two-way ANOVA of group 4 x condition 2 revealed significant main effects of group and condition. The total number of correct responses was significantly lower in the 6th graders relative to the other groups, and that of the middle schoolers was lower than the adults. However, with the short story context, no significant difference in proverb comprehension of middle schoolers relative to the adult group was revealed. All groups were observed to have a choice tendency in the following order: plausible figurative interpretation, implausible figurative interpretation, and literal interpretation of the proverb.
Discussion & Conclusion
Adolescents were able to utilize given contextual information in the comprehension of proverbs. The authors of the present study suggest that contextual information for metaphors may be useful in proverb comprehension, and there is developmental change of proverb comprehension utilized in contextual information processing from later childhood to early adolescence.