The problem of "the nature and organizational structure of information" is the principal target of the research by Allan Paivio and Mary Walsh. They have updated their Ortony (1979) text. They describe the main approaches, adopted in the mental process analysis and linked to the behaviour of metaphoric language, that characterize four theoretical points of view: "one based on imagery, another on verbal association, a third on abstract representation, and a fourth on a dual-coding approach" [p.312]. These authors favour the last alternative, which puts together mental pictures and verbal processes. In the case of metaphor "the vehicle serves as an efficient conceptual peg for metaphor comprehension to the extent that it promotes retrieval of images and verbal information that intersects with information aroused by the topic" [p.324]. (Elisabetta Gola)