Metaphors make abstract concepts easier to explain because they draw on familiar structures and experiences. In the first funding phase, the project investigated how metaphors facilitate the understanding of new concepts: Which characteristics are emphasized or concealed, how can agency be expressed, and how are metaphors used specifically in explanations? Building on this, the project is now investigating how metaphorical explanations influence understanding and how they can be generated automatically and adapted to the reactions of the listener. This involves combining psychological approaches with methods from computational linguistics and natural language processing.

Research areas: Psychology, Computer science