Melanie Glenwright

An Acquired Taste: Children's Perceptions of Humor and Teasing in Verbal Irony

Around 5 or 6 years of age, children begin to recognize that speakers who make ironic remarks do not believe what they literally say, but children of the same age do not show appreciation for the humor function of irony (Dews et al., 1996; Harris & Pexman, 2003). We investigated 7- to 10-year-old childrens interpretations of verbal irony and focused on factors that might modulate childrens impressions of humor in irony. Results showed that (a) children tended to identify with the target, not the speaker, of ironic remarks and perceived less humor in irony when they did so; (b) childrens appreciation of the teasing function of irony, like the humor function of irony, continues to develop late in middle childhood; and (c) children did not use relationship information (speaker and target were friends, strangers, or enemies) as a cue to the speakers humorous intent. We suggest that these characteristics of childrens theories of verbal irony are a function of their social knowledge and representational skills.

Processing of Ironic Language in Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

We examined processing of verbal irony in three groups of children: (1) 18 children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD), (2) 18 typically-developing children, matched to the first group for verbal ability, and (3) 18 typically-developing children matched to the first group for chronological age. We utilized an irony comprehension task that minimized verbal and pragmatic demands for participants. Results showed that children with HFASD were as accurate as typically-developing children in judging speaker intent for ironic criticisms, but group differences in judgment latencies, eye gaze, and humor evaluations suggested that children with HFASD applied a different processing strategy for irony comprehension; one that resulted in less accurate appreciation of the social functions of irony.

Children's Use of Trait Information in Understanding Verbal Irony

We investigated whether providing information about a speakers personality traits would influence childrens interpretations and processing of verbal irony. In Experiment 1, 5- to 6-year-olds demonstrated strong understanding of personality traits and limited understanding of ironic remarks when the two were tested independently. In Experiment 2, 5- to 8-year-old children were provided with trait information about the speaker that was either congruent or incongruent with ironic remarks (e.g., nice speaker makes an ironic criticism, mean speaker makes an ironic criticism). Results showed that childrens interpretations of ironic remarks were modulated by speaker personality traits and processing data revealed that older children were more efficient than younger children at coordinating cues to verbal irony.