0 Bortfeld, Heather McGlone, Matthew S. 2001 Metaphor and Symbol 16 75-86 metaphor cognitive psychology continuum of metaphor processing metaphor processing processing set psycholinguistics We describe the explanatory value of a relativistic account of metaphor processing in which different modes of metaphor interpretation are assumed to be operative in different discourse contexts. Employing the cognitive psychological notion of a processing set, we explain why people might favor attributional interpretations of figurative expressions in some circumstances and analogical interpretations in others. Applying this logic to findings in the psycholinguistic literature on metaphor suggests that some of the competing models may in fact describe different points on a continuum of metaphor processing(Heather Bortfeld and Matthew McGlone).