Recognizing sarcasm and jocularity during face-to-face communication requires the integration of verbal, paralinguistic, and nonverbal cues, yet most previous research on nonliteral language processing has been carried out using written or static stimuli. In the current study, we examined the processing of dynamic literal and nonliteral intentions using eye tracking. Participants ( = 37) viewed short, ecologically valid video vignettes and were asked to identify the speakers' intention. Participants had greater difficulty identifying jocular statements as insincere in comparison to sarcastic statements and spent significantly more time looking at faces during nonliteral versus literal social interactions. Finally, participants took longer to shift their attention from one talker to the other talker during interactions that conveyed literal positive intentions compared with jocular and literal negative intentions. These findings currently support the and the of nonliteral language processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cep0000223 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Word reuse and combination support efficient communication of emerging concepts.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
November 2024
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G8, Canada.
A key function of the lexicon is to express novel concepts as they emerge over time through a process known as lexicalization. The most common lexicalization strategies are the reuse and combination of existing words, but they have typically been studied separately in the areas of word meaning extension and word formation. Here, we offer an information-theoretic account of how both strategies are constrained by a fundamental tradeoff between competing communicative pressures: Word reuse tends to preserve the average length of word forms at the cost of less precision, while word combination tends to produce more informative words at the expense of greater word length.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPre-Stimulus Activity of Left and Right TPJ in Linguistic Predictive Processing: A MEG Study.
Brain Sci
October 2024
IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, 30126 Venice, Italy.
Background: The left and right temporoparietal junctions (TPJs) are two brain areas involved in several brain networks, largely studied for their diverse roles, from attentional orientation to theory of mind and, recently, predictive processing. In predictive processing, one crucial concept is prior precision, that is, the reliability of the predictions of incoming stimuli. This has been linked with modulations of alpha power as measured with electrophysiological techniques, but TPJs have seldom been studied in this framework.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComparing pragmatic abilities across multiple languages in adults with ADHD: Insights from a self-report questionnaire.
Clin Linguist Phon
July 2024
Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with pragmatic language impairments in children, but less is known about the communicative abilities of adults with ADHD, especially when using a second or third language. In this study, we developed a questionnaire to collect self-report measures of a set of pragmatic skills in a person's first, second and third language, comparing adults with and without an ADHD diagnosis. One hundred seventy-nine multilingual adults with ( = 91) and without ADHD ( = 88) completed the survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPragmatic Skills in Late Adulthood.
J Psycholinguist Res
February 2024
Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Department of Humanities, University of Genoa, Via Balbi 2, 16126, Genoa, Italy.
Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic abilities evolve in late adulthood, as well as when difficulties are more likely to arise. The aim of this study is to investigate the decline of pragmatic skills in aging, and to explore what cognitive and demographic factors support pragmatic competence. We assessed pragmatic production skills, including discourse abilities such as speech, informativeness, information flow, paralinguistic aspects, as well as the ability to produce informative descriptions of pictures, and pragmatic comprehension skills, which encompassed the ability to understand discourse and the main aspects of a narrative text, to infer non-literal meanings and to comprehend verbal humor in a group of elderly individuals and in a sample of younger participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntracranial recordings reveal high-frequency activity in the human temporal-parietal cortex supporting non-literal language processing.
Front Neurosci
January 2024
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Objective: Non-literal expressions such as sarcasm, metaphor and simile refer to words and sentences that convey meanings or intentions that are different and more abstract than literal expressions. Neuroimaging studies have shown activations in a variety of frontal, parietal and temporal brain regions implicated in non-literal language processing. However, neurophysiological correlates of these brain areas underlying non-literal processing remain underexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!