Psycholinguistic research covering idiom comprehension is reviewed, centering on the relationship between literal and metaphorical interpretations, with seemingly contradictory theories advocated. These include the idiom list, lexical representation, and direct access hypotheses, but only recently has the use of computers supplied evidence of changes in a theoretical perspective on idioms. Recent work appears to contradict earlier studies and focuses on the role of characteristics that differentiate idioms, e.g., predictability, polysemy, familiarity of the expression, relative familiarity of interpretation, transparency, and syntactical and lexical flexibility. A newer hypothesis thought to contrast with the earlier theories posits that idioms can be taken apart and treated in the same manner as their literal meanings. In this hypothesis, the interpretation of idioms is no longer metaphorical or figurative; rather, their interpretation can include conceptual metaphors in the same area of semantics. (Copyright 1995, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (K. Burch in LLBA 1995, vol, 29, n. 3)