Word selection allows us to choose words during language production. This is often viewed as a competitive process wherein a lexical representation is retrieved among semantically-related alternatives. The left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to help overcome competition for word selection through top-down control. However, whether the LPFC is always necessary for word selection remains unclear. We tested 6 LPFC-injured patients and controls in two picture naming paradigms varying in terms of item repetition. Both paradigms elicited the expected semantic interference effects (SIE), reflecting interference caused by semantically-related representations in word selection. However, LPFC patients as a group showed a larger SIE than controls only in the paradigm involving item repetition. We argue that item repetition increases interference caused by semantically-related alternatives, resulting in increased LPFC-dependent cognitive control demands. The remaining network of brain regions associated with word selection appears to be sufficient when items are not repeated.

Irony has traditionally been studied as a purely pragmatic phenomenon, one in which a speaker says one thing and means another, often by commenting on the contrast between expectation and reality. However, as cognitive linguists have discerned for many other aspects of language, much of the ways that people speak and understand one another is motivated by people’s pervasive bodily experiences. Ironic humor provides another compelling phenomenon in which to understand the embodied foundation of both linguistic meaning and multimodal expression, particularly in terms of rough-and-tumble play. Many forms of humor arise from different benign violations of the body in play fighting. We describe cognitive linguistic and psychological evidence on the importance of bodily experience, and benign violations of the body, in linguistic expressions referring to teasing and humor. Variations of rough-and-tumble play help explain some of the instabilities in the ways ironic humor unfolds in interpersonal interactions.

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Games are able to convey meaning that influences players' beliefs and attitudes via their mechanics (aka "procedural rhetoric"), but recent work suggests that this is likely to be effective only when combined with traditional ways of conveying meaning (e.g., music, imagery, narrative, etc.). To investigate the specific component of rhetorical influence that comes from game mechanics, we constructed a city management strategy game that allowed us to independently vary narrative framing and game rules. We found that players perceived this game to be making an argument, but that player interpretations of this argument and the game's influence on their attitudes were not necessarily consistent with our intended message. When players had the option to make policy choices within the game, their decisions appeared to be driven more by what game mechanics rewarded rather than by their real-world policy preferences. However, the actions that they took within the game did predict changes in those policy preferences after play. This was true only when the narrative framing of the game matched the real world policy context. This implies that procedural rhetoric is most effective when supported by other ways of conveying meaning, and that understanding the psychological impact of game mechanics requires paying attention to the moment to moment choices that players make within a game. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Psychology; Computer games.

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