Metaphor and Symbol, 23: 148–173, 2008 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN 1092-6488 print / 1532-7868 online DOI: 10.1080/10926480802223051 The Journeys of Life: Examining a Conceptual Metaphor with Semantic and Episodic Memory Recall Albert N. Katz and Tamsen E. Taylor University of Western Ontario In four studies, we examine the “LIFE IS A JOURNEY” conceptual metaphor using as data output from semantic and episodic memory. In the first three studies output from semantic memory indicates that undergraduate samples, when primed to think in “LIFE” in terms of a course followed until one’s 70th year, provided a set of events output in a sequential order and when compared to a second sample, showed high agreement on the ages in which the events would occur. These data were taken as supportive of a “JOURNEY” metaphor in which one progressed along a life path. Study 2 indicated that the “LIFE” events produced also aroused specific subthemes, consistent with the notion of the arousal of lower-level “LIFE- JOURNEY” metaphors (e.g., “LOVE IS A JOURNEY”). In a third study, we experimentally constrained the order of report from semantic memory. These data indicate that free output of events (as in Study 1) involves both a forward-temporal output, and clustering of life themes, but that forcing a forward-temporal order is indicative of the arousal of the superordinate conceptual metaphor but not the lower-level themes. Finally, in an episodic memory task one finds the reverse, namely arousal of the lower-level themes but not of the superordinate conceptual metaphor. Taken together, these findings indicate conditions under which the “LIFE IS A JOURNEY” metaphor is facilitated, and when lower-level metaphors are made more salient. In a more general way, the studies provide a new tool with which to study conceptual metaphors. From it’s inception with the publication of Metaphors We Live By, (Lakoff and Johnson,1980) conceptual metaphor theory has been influential in linguistics, Address correspondence to Albert N. Katz, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2. E-mail: katz@uwo.ca