Symbols: Circles and Spheres Represent the Same Referents

Abstract

Forms can represent referents that are not shapes. This ability of forms to symbolize does not depend on cliches or conventions for each referent. A circle and a square can be taken as symbols for soft and hard, warm and cold, or alive and dead. The referents of circle and square, as symbols, are likely determined by properties of the forms. Therefore, referents of circle and square as symbols should be referents of other forms that share many properties with a circle and a square—forms such as a sphere and a cube. Three experiments examined this hypothesis by having participants match a list of referents with sphere and cube (Experiment 1), curved and angular (Experiment 2), and curved and straight (Experiment 3). The list was a set of word pairs that had previously been matched to circle and square. Sphere and cube generated the same kind of consensus as circle and square. Curved and angular generated the same kind of consensus as curved and straight. This suggests that the more key features two forms have in common, the more symbolic referents they will share. If the matching of forms and referents had been based on idioms or cliches, similar common uses of the terms square and straight would have produced similarities between judgments of symbolic referents of circle and square, and judgments of symbolic referents of curved and straight.