When a metaphor is first encountered (lawyers are sharks), several meanings are activated, but the literal ones (lawyers have fins) need to be inhibited to successfully compute the figurative meaning (lawyers are aggressive). With repeated exposure that metaphor becomes conventionalized, and its figurative meaning may be easily accessible without the need to inhibit the corresponding literal meaning. Thus, a central question in the field, and the objective of the current project, relates to how metaphor conventionality and inhibitory control contribute to metaphor comprehension. Participants completed a sense–nonsense task in which they indicated whether metaphorical and literal phrases had sensible meanings. In Experiment 1, participants also completed an inhibitory control task that assessed their ability to inhibit task-irrelevant responses. Participants with lower inhibitory control were slower at responding to more novel metaphors and faster at responding to more conventional metaphors compared with participants with higher inhibitory control. In Experiment 2, we used a dual-task paradigm to reduce participants’ inhibitory control resources while performing the sense–nonsense task. Participants completed the sense–nonsense task concurrently with a different secondary task. This assessed their ability to evaluate phrases under low and high inhibitory load conditions. Performance on the sense–nonsense task was higher when processing more conventional than more novel metaphors when participants’ inhibitory control processes were taxed in the high load condition. These findings suggest that inhibitory control does play a role in metaphor comprehension—the less conventional a metaphor, the more inhibitory skills are required to compute the figurative meaning.

当第一次遇到隐喻（律师是鲨鱼）时，会激活几种含义，但需要抑制字面含义（律师有鳍）才能成功计算比喻含义（律师是有攻击性的））。通过反复曝光，隐喻变得约定俗成，它的比喻意义可以很容易地获得，而无需抑制相应的字面意义。因此，该领域的一个核心问题以及当前项目的目标与隐喻约定性和抑制性控制如何促进隐喻理解有关。参与者完成了一项无意义的任务，在该任务中他们指出隐喻和字面短语是否具有合理的含义。在实验 1 中，参与者还完成了一项抑制控制任务，以评估他们抑制与任务无关的反应的能力。与具有较高抑制控制的参与者相比，具有较低抑制控制的参与者对更新颖的隐喻反应较慢，而对更传统的隐喻反应较快。在实验 2 中，我们使用双任务范式来减少参与者在执行有意义-无意义任务时的抑制控制资源。参与者在完成不同的次要任务的同时完成了无意义的任务。这评估了他们在低和高抑制负载条件下评估短语的能力。当参与者的抑制控制过程在高负荷条件下被征税时，处理更传统的隐喻比处理更传统的隐喻时有意义 - 无意义任务的表现更高。这些发现表明，抑制控制确实在隐喻理解中起作用——隐喻越不传统，计算比喻意义所需的抑制技能就越多。参与者在完成不同的次要任务的同时完成了无意义的任务。这评估了他们在低和高抑制负载条件下评估短语的能力。当参与者的抑制控制过程在高负荷条件下被征税时，处理更传统的隐喻比处理更传统的隐喻时有意义 - 无意义任务的表现更高。这些发现表明，抑制控制确实在隐喻理解中起作用——隐喻越不传统，计算比喻意义所需的抑制技能就越多。参与者在完成不同的次要任务的同时完成了无意义的任务。这评估了他们在低和高抑制负载条件下评估短语的能力。当参与者的抑制控制过程在高负荷条件下被征税时，处理更传统的隐喻比处理更传统的隐喻时有意义 - 无意义任务的表现更高。这些发现表明，抑制控制确实在隐喻理解中起作用——隐喻越不传统，计算比喻意义所需的抑制技能就越多。当参与者的抑制控制过程在高负荷条件下被征税时，处理更传统的隐喻比处理更传统的隐喻时有意义 - 无意义任务的表现更高。这些发现表明，抑制控制确实在隐喻理解中起作用——隐喻越不传统，计算比喻意义所需的抑制技能就越多。当参与者的抑制控制过程在高负荷条件下被征税时，处理更传统的隐喻比处理更传统的隐喻时有意义 - 无意义任务的表现更高。这些发现表明，抑制控制确实在隐喻理解中起作用——隐喻越不传统，计算比喻意义所需的抑制技能就越多。