Abstract images and words can convey the same meaning

Intuitively, deriving meaning from an abstract image is a uniquely human, idiosyncratic experience.
Here we show that, despite having no universally recognised lexical association, abstract images
spontaneously elicit specific concepts conveyed by words, with a consistency akin to that of concrete
images. We presented a group of naïve participants with abstract picture–word pairs construed
as ‘related’ or ‘unrelated’ according to a preliminary norming procedure conducted with different
participants. Surprisingly, the naïve participants with no prior exposure to the abstract images or
any hints regarding their possible meaning, displayed a reaction time priming effect for ‘related’
versus ‘unrelated’ picture-word pairs. Critically, this behavioural priming effect, and an associated
decrease in N400 mean amplitude indexing semantic priming, both correlated significantly with
the degree of relatedness established in the preliminary norming procedure. Given that ratings and
electrophysiological measures were obtained in different groups of individuals, our results show that
abstract images evoke consistent meaning across observers, as has been shown in the case of music.