Contextual connections to puns in fables: perceived humor

Adding material that provided an associative connection to a pun enhances perceived humor, as shown in a previous series of studies. Because those results had been based on one-sentence statements that may have relied, in part, on brevity for humor, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate reactions to context and puns (mostly spoonerisms) with more lengthy material to add generality to those findings. Three within-subject studies were conducted in which short fables were manipulated systematically such that the final sentence was or was not a pun and contextual information pertaining to both meanings of the pun was or was not present in the body of the stories. Results showed that the pun itself was a powerful contributor to perceived humor and cleverness and that contextual information amplified those perceptions. Arousal, surprise, and detection of appropriate incongruity are discussed.     

Contextual connections to puns in Tom Swifties

Previous research conducted with short fables was replicated in this study with Swifties in which sentence length and presence of a pun were controlled. Of the 24 one-sentence word plays shown to each participant, half had an enhanced contextual connection that was predicted to increase appropriateness and detection of the incongruity, resulting in heightened perceived cleverness and humor. Results supported predictions, showing especially strong enhancement of perceived cleverness. The authors suggest that this outcome could be generalized to other forms of word play.     

The effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures

Two experiments investigated the effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures. Each picture was given three labels that differed in the degree of humor: high, low, and no humor labels. In Experiment 1, the humor of the picture labels was manipulated between participants. Participants were shown 30 pictures for 10 s each and were asked to rate the degree of humor of each picture. After the rating task, participants were asked to draw the pictures in an unexpected memory test. Performance in the memory test was best in the high humor label group, followed by the low and the no humor label groups. In Experiment 2, intention to learn (incidental versus intentional encoding tasks) as well as humor label was manipulated between the participants. In the incidental learning condition, the high humor group performed better than the low humor group, but in the intentional learning condition, there was no humor effect. The effects of humor on picture memory were discussed in terms of appraisal processing within a distinctiveness framework.     

Talking about visually perceived events: Communication effects on eyewitness memory

Communicators' tuning of a message about a social target to their audience's evaluation can shape their representation of the target. This audience‐tuning effect has been demonstrated with ambiguous text passages as input material. We examined whether the effect also occurs when communicators learn about the target's behaviours from visual (nonverbal) input material. In Experiment 1, participants watched a soundless video depicting ambiguous behaviours of a target, described the video to an audience who liked (vs. disliked) the target, and subsequently recalled the video. Both message and recall were biased towards the audience's judgement. In Experiment 2, the video depicted a forensically relevant event, specifically ambiguous behaviours of two persons involved in a bar brawl. Participants tuned their event retellings to their audience's responsibility judgement and remembered the event accordingly. In both experiments, the effect of the audience's judgement on recall was statistically mediated by the extent to which the message was tuned to the audience. The more participants experienced a shared reality with their audience the stronger was the message‐recall correlation (Experiment 2). We conclude that the audience‐tuning effect for visually perceived information depends on the communicators' creation of a shared reality with their audience. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contextual contrast and perceived knowledge: Exploring the implications for persuasion

The present research tested the notion that perceived target knowledge can be affected by the amount of information one has about other recently encountered stimuli—whether that information is relevant or not. Furthermore, the present research tested the implications of this effect for persuasion. In 4 experiments, participants were presented with a persuasive message promoting a fictitious department store, but first received another message containing more or less information about something else (e.g., another store, a car, or a person). Regardless of the type or valence of initial information received, the initial message had a contrast effect on perceived target knowledge, which influenced target attitudes. The less information the initial message contained, the more persuasive knowledge participants thought they received from the target message, and the more their attitudes agreed with that message. These findings suggest that the perceived amount of persuasive information one has about a target stimulus can be manipulated to increase persuasion, even when the actual amount of information about the target stimulus does not vary.     

Contextual imagery in meaning and memory

Three hundred homonyms were selected, and sentence fragments were written to emphasize two meanings of each. The words were rated on image-arousing capacity both in and out of context and on frequency of occurrence in context. Imagery values for the words out of context were predicted quite well by an average of the contextual imagery ratings, weighted by their relative frequencies. The finding is consistent with the hypothesis that words presented in isolation are interpreted in specific senses according to a frequency bias, with imagery ratings reflecting those senses. In a memory experiment. words were selected to vary orthogonally on both contextual and out-of-context imagery. Recall of words in isolation was a function of out-of-context imagery, while recall of words presented in context was a function of contextual imagery, further supporting the hypothesis.     

Contextual inference in learning and memory

Context is widely regarded as a major determinant of learning and memory across numerous domains, including classical and instrumental conditioning, episodic memory, economic decision-making, and motor learning. However, studies across these domains remain disconnected due to the lack of a unifying framework formalizing the concept of context and its role in learning. Here, we develop a unified vernacular allowing direct comparisons between different domains of contextual learning. This leads to a Bayesian model positing that context is unobserved and needs to be inferred. Contextual inference then controls the creation, expression, and updating of memories. This theoretical approach reveals two distinct components that underlie adaptation, proper and apparent learning, respectively referring to the creation and updating of memories versus time-varying adjustments in their expression. We review a number of extensions of the basic Bayesian model that allow it to account for increasingly complex forms of contextual learning.     

The effect of humor on memory: constrained by the pun

In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of pun humor on memory. In all experiments, the participants were exposed to knock-knock jokes in either the original form retaining the pun or in a modified form that removed the pun. In Experiment 1, the authors found that pun humor improved both recall and recognition memory following incidental encoding. In Experiment 2, they found evidence that rehearsal is not the cause of the humor effect on memory. In Experiments 3 and 4, the authors found that the constraints imposed by puns and incongruity may account for the humor effects observed. Puns constrain and limit the information that can fit in the final line of a joke and thus make recall easier.     

Contextual effects on number-time interaction

Time perception has long been known to be affected by numerical representations. Recent studies further demonstrate that when participants estimate the duration of Arabic numbers, number magnitude, though task-irrelevant, biases duration judgment to produce underestimation for smaller numbers and overestimation for larger numbers. Such effects were found in the present study to be significantly reduced when a weight unit gram was suffixed to the numbers rendering the mental magnitude differences between different numbers less distinctive. The effects were enhanced when a different unit kilogram was suffixed to the numbers enlarging the perceived magnitude differences between different numbers. The results indicate that effects of number magnitude on duration estimation should not be attributed to the mathematical differences between numbers but to how the numbers are perceived to differ from each other in magnitude in specific contexts when they denote concrete items. The results also provide new evidence for the theoretical proposal of a common generalized magnitude system and indicate that the system must be extended to include other action-oriented magnitudes, such as weight.     

Contextual cueing effects in the remote memory of alcoholic Korsakoff patients and normal subjects

This study examines the effects of contextual cueing on the remote memory of alcoholic Korsakoff patients and normal subjects. Naming of personalities who became famous in each of the five decades beginning 1935 was tested under two conditions: "no-context", in which minimal extraneous cues to identification were provided, and "context", where clear extraneous cues were available. Normal subjects performed better than Korsakoff patients, showed no evidence of a temporal gradient, and exhibited a contextual cueing advantage across all decades. In contrast, Korsakoff patients demonstrated a marked temporal gradient, and the contextual cueing advantage declined systematically as more recent decades were sampled. Further analyses demonstrated that the differential pattern of deficits shown by Korsakoffs and controls was not attributable to absolute differences in performance level. Theoretical implications of these data for explanations of Korsakoff retrograde amnesia are discussed.     

Size effects in visual recognition memory are determined by perceived size

Recognition memory for shapes has been shown to depend on differences between the size of shapes at the time of encoding and at the time of the memory test (Jolicoeur, 1987). Experiment 1 of the present paper replicates this effect and establishes a set of parameters used in the subsequent experiments. Experiment 2 considers the results of Experiment 1 in light of the distinction between "perceived" size, which, under normal viewing conditions, varies minimally with changes in distance between the observer and object, and "retinal" size, which varies proportionally with viewing distance as an object is moved closer to or farther from an observer. Subjects studied novel shapes and performed a recognition memory test in which the distance from the subject to the viewing screen at the time of testing was different from that at the time of encoding. The viewing distance and the size of the shapes were manipulated such that perceived and retinal sizes were dissociated. The results suggest that the size-congruency effect in memory for visual shape occurs as a result of changes in the perceived size of shapes between the encoding and the testing phases, with little or no contribution of retinal size per se.     

Contextual memory and skill transfer in category search

In three experiments, we examined transfer and contextual memory in a category search task. Each experiment included two phases (training and test), during which participants searched through category and exemplar menus for targets. In Experiment 1, the targets were from one of two domains during training (grocery store or department store); the domain was either the same or changed at test. Also, the categories were organized in one of two ways (alphabetically or semantically); the organization either remained the same or changed at test. In Experiments 2 and 3, domain and organization were held constant; however, categories or exemplars were the same, partially replaced, or entirely replaced across phases in order to simulate the dynamic nature of category search in everyday situations. Transfer occurred at test when the category organization or domain was maintained and when the categories or exemplars matched (partially or entirely) those at training. These results demonstrate that transfer is facilitated by overlap in training and testing contexts.     

Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading

An experiment is reported in which young, middle-aged, and older adults read and recalled ambiguous texts either with or without the topic title that supplied contextual knowledge. Within each of the age groups, the participants were divided into those with high or low working memory (WM) spans, with available WM capacity further manipulated by the presence or absence of an auditory target detection task concurrent with the reading task. Differences in reading efficiency (reading time per proposition recalled) between low WM span and high WM span groups were greater among readers who had access to contextual knowledge relative to those who did not, suggesting that contextual knowledge reduces demands on WM capacity. This position was further supported by the finding that increased age and attentional demands, two factors associated with reduced WM capacity, exaggerated the benefits of contextual knowledge on reading efficiency. The relative strengths of additional potential predictors of reading efficiency (e.g., interest, effort, and memory beliefs), along with knowledge, WM span, and age, are reported. Findings showed that contextual knowledge was the strongest predictor of reading efficiency even after controlling for the effects of all of the other predictors.     

Contextual effects on word production: A lifespan study

The effect of sentence priming on picture naming was investigated across the lifespan, from age 3 to 87 years. Names that are normally acquired before 3 years of age were presented in auditory contexts that were semantically congruent, incongruent, or neutral in relation to each picture and its name. Sentential priming was present at all age levels. Facilitation (neutral vs. congruent) was significantly by 4 years of age and did not vary significantly with age. Interference (incongruent vs. neutral) was significant at all age levels, but changed nonmonotonically with age (largest in the youngest children, stable from young adulthood through age 70, with a small increase in the oldest participants). We conclude that picture naming is a useful tool for the investigation of sentential priming effects across the lifespan and that it can reveal potentially interesting developmental changes in the effects of sentential context on word retrieval.     

Relevance of perceived teacher humor types for instruction and student learning

The use of humor is assumed to be an effective tool for teachers to promote instruction and student learning. However, research on teacher humor is not yet systematically linked to instructional research. To provide a starting point, a model of teacher humor effects is proposed that refers to a multidimensional conception with different types of humor. To test basic assumptions of the model, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 985 secondary school students from 45 classrooms who were surveyed on their perceptions of teacher humor as well as relevant dimensions of instruction and aspects of their own learning. Two-level modelling revealed substantial relations between teacher humor and instructional dimensions and student learning which varied considerably between different types of humor. Whereas humor related to course material showed positive associations, unrelated humor was negatively related with the investigated instructional dimensions. Two-level mediation analyses indicated that the associations between teacher humor and student learning were mediated by instructional dimensions.     

Contextual effects on reading aloud: evidence for pathway control

Recent evidence suggests that the processes responsible for generating a phonological code from print are flexible in skilled readers. An important goal, therefore, is to identify the conditions that lead to changes in how a phonological code is computed. Five experiments are reported that examine whether phonological processes change as predicted by the pathway control hypothesis when reading aloud words and nonwords. Changes in reading processes were assessed by measuring the effect of predictable switches between stimulus categories across trials. The results of the present experiments are argued to be consistent with the pathway control hypothesis.     

Contextual effects in vowel perception I: Anchor-induced contrast effects

Results from recent experiments using a selective adaption paradigm with vowels have been interpreted as the result of the fatigue of a set of feature detectors. These results could also be interpreted, however, as resulting from changes in auditory memory (auditory contrast) or changing response criteria (response bias). In the present studies, subjects listened to vowels under two conditions: an equiprobable control, with each of the stimuli occurring equally often, and an anchoring condition, with one vowel occurring more often than any of the others. Contrast effects were found in that vowel category boundaries tended to shift toward the category of the anchor, relative to the equiprobable control. Results from these experiments were highly similar to previous selective adaptation results and suggest that neither feature detector fatigue nor response criterion changes can adequately account for the adaptation/ anchoring results found with vowels.     

Stress and memory: opposing effects of glucocorticoids on memory consolidation and memory retrieval

It is well established that glucocorticoid hormones, secreted by the adrenal cortex after a stressful event, influence cognitive performance. Some studies have found glucocorticoid-induced memory enhancement. However, many studies have reported impairing effects of glucocorticoids on memory function. This paper reviews recent findings from this laboratory on the acute effects of glucocorticoids in rats on specific memory phases, i.e., memory consolidation and memory retrieval. The evidence suggests that the consequences of glucocorticoid activation on cognition depend largely on the different memory phases investigated. Posttraining activation of glucocorticoid-sensitive pathways involving glucocorticoid receptors enhances memory consolidation in a pattern highly similar to that previously described for adrenal catecholamines. Also, similar to catecholamine effects on memory consolidation, glucocorticoid influences on memory consolidation depend on noradrenergic activation of the basolateral complex of the amygdala and interactions with other brain regions. By contrast, memory retrieval processes are usually impaired with high circulating levels of glucocorticoids or following infusions of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into the hippocampus. The hypothesis is proposed that these apparently dual effects of glucocorticoids on memory consolidation and memory retrieval might be related and that the basolateral complex of the amygdala is a key structure in a memory-modulatory system that regulates, in concert with other brain regions, stress and glucocorticoid effects on both memory consolidation and memory retrieval.     

Contextual effects on metaphor comprehension in reading

Subjects read target sentences preceded by either short or long context that induced either a metaphoric or a literal target reading. As had been found by Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, and Antos (1978), metaphoric targets were comprehended about as quickly as literals when context was long, but more slowly than literals when context was short. The latter result may have been due to the failure of computing a conceptual relationship between short context and metaphoric target; targets unrelated to prior context took as long to comprehend as metaphoric targets. Another experiment showed that metaphorically expressed targets were read more quickly when they followed metaphorically expressed context than when they followed literal context, but literal targets were read quickest when they followed literal context. These results are discussed within a schema framework and within a “process priming” hypothesis.     

Contextual and sequential effects on judgments of sweetness intensity

Presenting stimuli from skewed concentration distributions affects mean responses on category scales. However, if the number of categories on the response scale is increased, the degree of separation between the mean responses obtained for a positively as opposed to a negatively skewed concentration distribution diminishes. The present study investigates the effect of skewed concentration distributions upon ratings on a line scale and compares it to the context effect found for a 7-point category scale. In addition, sequential dependencies between consecutive stimuli and responses are investigated in order to assess their relevance in tasteintensity scaling studies. The context effects are similar for the 7-point category scale and for the line scale. The analyses of sequential effects show that both preceding responses and preceding stimuli affect current responses. However, since these two factors work in opposite directions, only a small contrast effect from the previous stimulus is significant in an overall analysis. The present study shows that even though the overall sequential effects between consecutive stimuli and responses are small, the effect of experimental context may be considerable. Since subjective context is established at the beginning of a session and sequential dependencies operate throughout the whole session, it is argued that contextual and sequential effects are only indirectly related.