本研究采用ERP技術探討了權力概念的隱喻沖突機制。實驗基于空間Stroop任務變式,使用身份詞對作為刺激,操作詞對間的字體大小和左右位置,檢驗權力的大小隱喻和左右隱喻與其概念表征存在沖突時的認知加工過程。行為結果發現,詞對的字體大小與位置左右共同影響了權力概念判斷,呈現隱喻沖突的基本特點。ERP結果顯示隱喻沖突連續體現在早期N1、N2pc成分,以及晚期N400、NSW和LPC成分上。結果表明,權力的概念判斷可同時受到大小隱喻和左右隱喻的影響。因隱喻知覺線索與概念表征失匹配而引發的隱喻沖突,不僅會出現在早期注意階段,也會出現在晚期的語義編碼和評估階段。

This study explored the cognitive mechanisms of the metaphorical conflict control in the conceptual representation of social power using event-related potentials. In the present study, a spatial Stroop task was employed, and word-pairs of social statuses were utilized as stimuli. Through manipulating the relative font sizes of the word-pairs and their spatial positions, the time-course of the metaphorical conflicts among the font sizes, spatial positions, and the social power concepts were examined. Behavioral results revealed typical characteristics of metaphorical conflicts, in which the social power judgment on word-pairs was significantly affected by font sizes, spatial positions, and their interactions. Moreover, ERP results showed that metaphorical conflict processing was continually manifested in early N1 and N2pc components, as well as N400, NSW and LPC components. Our study showed that the semantic representation of social power was simultaneously affected by metaphors of font size and spatial position. Additionally,the metaphorical conflict caused by the conflict between perceptual clues and conceptual representation arose not only at the early perceptual processing stage but also at the later semantic evaluation stage.