The benefits of one-sided iconicity

Iconicity has recently been shown to be widespread in language and to play a particularly important role in bootstrapping new referring expressions or even getting whole new languages off the ground. The basis of this role has long been assumed to depend primarily on transparency for the receiver of the iconic signal, but might there also be producer-side advantages that play a significant role? We investigated this using an experimental referential communication game in which dyads communicated fruit and vegetables. We manipulated whether the sender could generate iconic signals and whether the receiver saw them. Results suggested that iconicity gave dyads a head-start, via stability in production, even if the receiver did not perceive the iconicity. However, this benefit declined over time, most likely due to memory constraints on the receiver.