Conventionalization of Graphic Representations of Abstract Concepts and Metaphors in an Experimental-Semiotic Communication Game

Abstract concepts are a hallmark of human cognition and culture. However, there is much debate over how they are structured and cognitively represented, and how they emerge and become conventionalized within a community. One influential approach is that abstract concepts are based on conceptual metaphors. This study investigates the emergence and conventionalization of abstract concepts and metaphors in an experimental-semiotic referential communication game in which participants have to rely on drawing to communicate abstract concepts and metaphors. The study sheds light on the different strategies participants use to evoke abstract concepts and shows that participants decrease the number of strategies they use over subsequent rounds of interaction, converging on more successful strategies and thereby initiating a joint process of conventionalization.