EEG Alpha Production Correlates of Cognitive Style Differences and Recall of Metaphor from Poetry. Technical Report No. 324

Differences in metaphor recall from poetry were investigated using 10 female and 10 male college student subjects hypothesized as having either an analytic or a holistic processing style. Style was determined using bilateral alpha (8-13Hz) scores measured from the cerebral cortex. It was suggested, on the basis of bimodal theory, that holistic processors would produce greater amounts of EEG alpha and recall more metaphor from less logically stuctured poetry than would analytic processors. Recall of metaphor by analytic and holistic males provided partial support for bimodal theory, with holistic processors consistently recalling more metaphor from less logically stuctured poetry, and analytic processors recalling more metaphor from tightly structured poetry. Analytic and holistic females' metaphor recall patterns were generally opposite to those of males. EEG alpha supported the existence of the holistic processing dimension derived from bimodal theory. As predicted, alpha production of holistic processors was greater than that of analytic processors during poetry encoding. (Author/FL)