Cognitive and Affective Aspects of Verbal Humor: A Visual-World Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

Many theories of verbal humour postulate that the funniness of jokes is caused by an incongruency in the punchline whose resolution yields a feeling of mirth. While there are studies testing the prediction that this situation model updating leads to increases in processing costs, there are few studies directly assessing the time course of when the alternative situation models are entertained. In a visual world paradigm, stories were presented auditorily and displays were presented illustrating either the situation implied by the context or the final interpretation after the punchline. Eye movement data confirmed the switch from the initial to the final interpretation for jokes as well as for non-funny control stories that also required a situation model revision. In addition to these effects of the cognitive revision requirements, the pupil dilations were sensitive to the affective component of joke comprehension. These results are discussed in light of incongruency theories of verbal humour.

The neurolinguistics of the second language pragmatic system

“…These findings show how certain pragmatic phenomena give rise to rhetorical advantages. Finally, a recent study on eye movements during humor comprehension shows emotional reactions indexed by changes in pupil dilation, in addition to online punchline incongruency processing, which leads to a switch from an initial to a final interpretation, elegantly described by eye movements (Israel et al, 2022).…”

Wortschatzlernen mit zwei Medien in der Fremdsprache Deutsch. Eine Eyetracking-basierte Untersuchung zur Wahrnehmung von chinesischen Deutschlernenden beim Selbstlernen

“…Im Fachgebiet der Psychologie wird die Eyetracking-Technologie ebenso häufig eingesetzt und dadurch lässt sich beispielweise der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Blickverhalten und den kognitiven Prozessen betrachten (bspw. Israel et al, 2022). Obwohl bereits mehrere Studien über Zweitspracherwerb mit dem Einsatz der Eyetracking-Technologie vorliegen (bspw.…”