Older adults may experience certain forms of cognitive decline, but some forms of semantic memory remain intact in older age. To address how metaphor comprehension changes with age and whether metaphor comprehension relies more heavily on analogical reasoning (supported by fluid intelligence) or on conceptual combination (supported by crystalized intelligence), we compared performance of younger and older adults. In two experiments, healthy older adults (54-88 years) scored lower on a measure of fluid intelligence (Ravens Progressive Matrices) but higher on a measure of crystalized intelligence (Mill Hill Vocabulary Test) relative to younger adults (18-34 years). Groups were equally successful in comprehending relatively easy metaphors (Study 1), but older adults showed a striking advantage over younger adults for novel literary metaphors (Study 2). Mixed-effects modeling showed that measures of fluid and crystalized intelligence each made separable contributions to metaphor comprehension for both groups, but older adults relied more on crystalized intelligence than did younger adults. These age-related dissociations clarify cognitive effects of aging and highlight the importance of crystalized intelligence for metaphor comprehension in both younger and older adults. 

Picture-text relations in multimodal first-aid instructions and the various nuances of meaning they can jointly produce have been the subject of assessment in numerous studies (e.g., Van der Sluis, Vergeer, & Redeker, 2018; Van der Sluis et al., 2022; Wildfeuer et al., 2023). In our current exploration, we specifically focus on the pictorial aspect of these instructions, particularly on the portrayal of help givers in first-aid guidance materials. Recognizing that these instructional materials can be presented in different formats (for instance, as drawings or photographs, in colour or monochrome, simple or detailed, and sometimes also very similar to characters in comicbooks or strips), our objective was to discover the attributes that individuals associate with help givers depicted in these various formats.

To achieve this aim, we selected 40 images showcasing help givers from the comprehensive corpus collected and organized within the PAT project (see Van der Sluis & Redeker, 2019), ensuring that the faces of the help givers were at least partly visible. These 40 images were then evaluated by a group of 107 participants (all of whom were university students), using two sets of representative adjectival traits presented in contrasting pairs (e.g., disorganized-organized, incompetent-capable, distrustful-trustful, rash-cautious), in line with Peabody’s (1987) catalogue of traits. The findings from this study suggest that a more favourable perception of traits is associated with images that are in colour, depicted from a bird's-eye view, or when the help giver is portrayed as a female, among other factors. It is our hope that the insights from this research will assist creators of future first-aid instruction materials to give more thoughtful consideration to the representation of help givers, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and relatability of their portrayals in first-aid guidance. The understanding of visual representation in instructional material stresses the importance of design choices in effectively conveying vital health information and optimizing learner engagement and comprehension

VR applications for medical simulations such as emergency situations offer new ways of providing knowledge and practical skills for saving a life and potentially represent a complex communicative environment. The communicative situations constructed by this environment bring with them an increasing level of interactivity and ergodicity and it is particularly challenging to address these analytically. We address this challenge by looking at Lifesaver VR and providing a foundational framework for the multimodal analysis of the communicative situations created in this application. We describe how information and content units of the game can be built and how these units can then be combined into complex discourse structures outlining the complexity and simultaneity of narrative, instructional, and interactive aspects of the game.

This article presents a study that investigated students’ attitudes toward both online and face-to-face English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes. The study was conducted with students of mechanical engineering and engineering management after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions that allowed face-to-face teaching to resume. The study aimed to determine students’ preferences for online or face-to-face classes and the reasons behind their opinions. It also aimed to compare the difficulty and interest level of EAP classes with other courses and gather qualitative feedback on how online EAP classes could be improved. The study was primarily quantitative, but it had a qualitative segment, too. The results indicated that students generally prefer face-to-face to online classes, although only marginally. Participants appreciated the ability to work from home and revisit recorded lessons in online classes, while face-to-face classes were valued for better communication with the instructor and collaboration with peers. English was viewed as better suited to online teaching than other courses, but students were hesitant to participate openly during classes. Most respondents suggested more active participation from students and mandatory attendance as ways of improving the online teaching process. 

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of translating literary metaphors from Serbian to English on metaphor quality, aptness, metaphoricity, and familiarity. The research involved 55 Serbian metaphors translated into English using the A is B form, which were then evaluated by 252 participants in two separate studies. Study 1 served as an extension of a previous norming study. In it, a group of participants assessed 55 translated literary metaphorical expressions, and their evaluations were compared to those of the original Serbian versions. In Study 2, a group of participants, divided into two subgroups, rated a collection of both the original metaphorical expressions and their translated counterparts. The results indicate that the translated metaphors generally scored higher in terms of aptness, familiarity, quality, and partially in metaphoricity. These findings suggest that translating the metaphors into English had a positive impact on their perceived effectiveness and familiarity. Several factors are considered to explain these outcomes, including the nature of the English language itself, the participants’ exposure to English, and the translation process. Overall, this study highlights the influence of translation on the perception of literary metaphors and provides insights into metaphor interpretation.

Ovo istraživanje je imalo za cilj da ispita uticaj prevođenja književnih metafora sa srpskog na engleski jezik na ocenjivanje kvaliteta metafore, sposobnosti izvora da opiše cilj, metaforičnosti i stepena poznatosti. Istraživanje je obuhvatilo 55 metafora u obliku A je B, uz ocene ukupno 252 ispitanika u dva odvojena zadatka. Prvi zadatak je predstavljao produžetak prethodnog istraživanja normiranja. U njemu su ispitanici ocenjivali 55 prevedenih književnih metaforičnih izraza, a njihove ocene upoređene su sa ocenama originalnih metafora na srpskom. U drugom zadatku su dve podgrupe ispitanika ocenjivale suženi izbor originalnih metaforičnih izraza i njihovih prevoda. Rezultati pokazuju da su prevedene metafore dobile više ocene za prilagodljivost, poznatost, kvalitet i delimično za metaforičnost. Ovo ukazuje na to da je prevođenje metafora na engleski imalo pozitivan uticaj na njihovu percipiranu efektivnost i poznatost. Postoji nekoliko faktora koji mogu da rasvetle ovakve rezultate, poput prirode engleskog jezika, izloženosti učesnika engleskom i samog procesa prevođenja.

Despite the exceptional performance of large language models (LLMs) on a wide range of tasks involving natural language processing and reasoning, there has been sharp disagreement as to whether their abilities extend to more creative human abilities. A core example is the interpretation of novel metaphors. Given the enormous and non-curated text corpora used to train LLMs, a serious obstacle to designing tests is the need to obtain novel yet high-quality metaphors that are unlikely to have been included in the training data. Here we assessed the ability of GPT-4, a state-of-the-art large language model, to provide natural-language interpretations of novel literary metaphors drawn from Serbian poetry and translated into English. Human judges—blind to the fact that an AI model was involved—rated metaphor interpretations generated by GPT-4 as superior to those provided by a group of college students. In interpreting reversed metaphors, GPT-4, as well as humans, exhibited signs of sensitivity to the Gricean cooperative principle. These results indicate that LLMs such as GPT-4 have acquired an emergent ability to interpret literary metaphors.

Despite the exceptional performance of large language models (LLMs) on a wide range of tasks involving natural language processing and reasoning, there has been sharp disagreement as to whether their abilities extend to more creative human abilities. A core example is the interpretation of novel metaphors. Here we assessed the ability of GPT-4, a state-of-the-art large language model, to provide natural-language interpretations of a recent AI benchmark (Fig-QA dataset), novel literary metaphors drawn from Serbian poetry and translated into English, and entire novel English poems. GPT-4 outperformed previous AI models on the Fig-QA dataset. For metaphors drawn from Serbian poetry, human judges – blind to the fact that an AI model was involved – rated metaphor interpretations generated by GPT-4 as superior to those provided by a group of college students. In interpreting reversed metaphors, GPT-4, as well as humans, exhibited signs of sensitivity to the Gricean cooperative principle. In addition, for several novel English poems GPT-4 produced interpretations that were rated as excellent or good by a human literary critic. These results indicate that LLMs such as GPT-4 have acquired an emergent ability to interpret literary metaphors, including those embedded in novel poems.

Given that the use and comprehension of figurative language is one of the most intriguing abilities of the mind, this study extends the line of research related to the process of understanding figurative language to individual differences. The starting assumption is that individual differences affect our ability to understand figurative language, focusing on fluid and crystallized intelligence. These types of intelligence were measured in relation to the ability t1o understand metaphors, and their influence was investigated indirectly, through tests that reliably examine both types of intelligence. The research investigates non-literary metaphors in the Serbian language, normed according to the following dimensions: metaphoricity, aptness, and familiarity. This study seeks to show whether and to what extent fluid and/or crystallized intelligence influence the process of understanding non-literary metaphors normed according to different features. Through selected verbal and non-verbal tests, Raven’s progressive matrices (Raven, 1938), semantic similarities test (Stamenković, Ichien, & Holyoak, 2019a), as well as a non-literary metaphor comprehension test, it is determined in which way fluid and crystallized intelligence play roles in the process of metaphor comprehension, as well as which possible cognitive mechanism allows us to process metaphors. The results show that the comprehension of non-literary metaphors mostly relies on crystallized intelligence, while fluid intelligence seems to be employed in individual cases, only with some groups of metaphors.

Multimodal characteristics of first-aid instructional materials have been extensively investigated in several previous studies (e.g., Van der Sluis, Vergeer, & Redeker, 2018; Van der Sluis et al., 2022; Wildfeuer et al., 2023). Starting from these studies, in our investigation, we narrow the focus to the portrayal of help givers in pictorial instructions, aiming to uncover the attributes associated with these representations across various formats and ways of depicting (for instance, as drawings or photographs, in colour or monochrome, simple or detailed, having different sets of characters, etc.). Drawing from a corpus of 40 selected images collected within the PAT project (see Van der Sluis & Redeker, 2019), participants evaluated these depictions using contrasting adjectival traits, presented in pairs, as outlined by Peabody (1987). Our empirical findings yield several relevant insights, indicating that favourable perceptions are often correlated with specific visual features, including colouration, perspective, and the portrayed gender of the depicted help giver. We believe that these results could have significant implications for the design of future first-aid instructional materials, advocating for more deliberate and effective representations, which could enrich learning experiences and user engagement in health education. This could, in turn, improve design-related decisions and allow them to communicate crucial health information more efficiently and optimize situation comprehension within health-educational frameworks.

Using poetic metaphors in the Serbian language, we identified systematic variations in the impact of fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of metaphors that varied in rated aptness and familiarity. Overall, comprehension scores were higher for metaphors that were high rather than low in aptness, and high rather than low in familiarity. A measure of crystalized intelligence was a robust predictor of comprehension across the full range of metaphors, but especially for those that were either relatively unfamiliar or more apt. In contrast, individual differences associated with fluid intelligence were clearly found only for metaphors that were low in aptness. Superior verbal knowledge appears to be particularly important when trying to find meaning in novel metaphorical expressions, and also when exploring the rich interpretive potential of apt metaphors. The broad role of crystalized intelligence in metaphor comprehension is consistent with the view that metaphors are largely understood using semantic integration processes continuous with those that operate in understanding literal language.