Abstract

This study provides norms for a test which assesses people's ability to understand non-ambiguous idioms - namely idioms whose literal meaning is implausible. Data were collected in a sample of 201 Italian healthy participants. A string-to-picture matching task was used in which participants were requested to choose one amongst four alternatives: a picture representing the figurative meaning of the idiomatic string; a picture representing as close as possible the literal meaning of the idiomatic string, a picture described by a sentence containing the content word following the verb in the idiomatic string; and one unrelated picture. The results showed that participants' performance was strongly influenced by educational level and age, while gender had no effect on the interpretation of idiomatic expressions.