Cultural Schema Influences Spatial Metaphors in Semantic Processing of Kinship Terms: Evidence from Han Chinese and Mosuo People
This study examined how cultural schemas shape spatial metaphors in the semantic processing of kinship terms, comparing Han Chinese and Mosuo participants using a kinship-term judgment task. Three experiments tested vertical (up/down), horizontal (left/right), and container (inside/outside) metaphors. Experiment 1 found both groups processed higher-generation terms faster when presented at the top of the screen and lower-generation terms faster at the bottom, showing a consistent vertical metaphor effect. Experiment 2 revealed a partial left/right congruency effect for Mosuo participants (younger same-generation terms processed faster on the right) but none for Han participants. Experiment 3 showed Mosuo participants processed matrilineal kinship terms faster than patrilineal ones, with distinct patterns depending on spatial position (center, edge, outside a circle), while Han participants showed no significant lineage difference. Overall, results demonstrate that spatial metaphor consistency effects in kinship semantic processing are shared across cultures but modulated by culture-specific schemas, reflecting the embodied and situated nature of human cognition.
This page publishes the bibliographic record and the project's summary. The scanned article text belongs to its publisher and is shown to readers under a research-use policy; it is not reproduced in this record.