Sarcasm in written communication: emoticons are efficient markers of intention

Here we present two studies that investigate the use of emoticons in clarifying message intent. We look at sarcasm in particular, which can be especially hard to interpret correctly in written communication. In both studies, participants were required to make the intentions of their messages clear. In the first, they clarified the meaning of existing sentences without altering the wording; in the second, they produced their own sentences. Results provided clear evidence that tongue and wink emoticons are the principal indicators of sarcastic intent, and that ellipsis is associated more with criticism, rather than with sarcasm. These findings highlight the significant role emoticons play in clarifying message intention, compensating for the absence of non-verbal cues in written communicatio

An eye-tracking investigation of written sarcasm comprehension: the roles of familiarity and context

This paper addresses a current theoretical debate between the standard pragmatic model, the graded salience hypothesis, and the implicit display theory, by investigating the roles of the context and of the properties of the sarcastic utterance itself in the comprehension of a sarcastic remark. Two eye-tracking experiments were conducted where we manipulated the speaker’s expectation in the context and the familiarity of the sarcastic remark. The results of the first eye-tracking study showed that literal comments were read faster than unfamiliar sarcastic comments, regardless of whether an explicit expectation was present in the context. The results of the second eye-tracking study indicated an early processing difficulty for unfamiliar sarcastic comments, but not for familiar sarcastic comments. Later reading time measures indicated a general difficulty for sarcastic comments. Overall, results seem to suggest that the familiarity of the utterance does indeed affect the time-course of sarcasm processing (supporting the graded salience hypothesis), while there is no evidence that making the speaker’s expectation explicit in the context affects it as well (thus failing to support the implicit display theory)

The Role of Emoticons in Sarcasm Comprehension in Younger and Older Adults: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment

We present an eye-tracking experiment examining moment-to-moment processes underlying the comprehension of emoticons. Younger (18-30) and older (65+) participants had their eye movements recorded whilst reading scenarios containing comments that were ambiguous between literal or sarcastic interpretations (e.g., But you’re so quick though). Comments were accompanied by wink emoticons or full stops. Results showed that participants read earlier parts of the wink scenarios faster than those with full stops, but then spent more time reading the text surrounding the emoticon. Thus, readers moved more quickly to the end of the text when there was a device that may aid interpretation, but then spent more time processing the conflict between the superficially positive nature of the comment and the tone implied by the emoticon. Interestingly, the wink increased the likelihood of a sarcastic interpretation in younger adults only, suggesting that perceiver-related factors play an important role in emoticon interpretation

Development and validation of new figural scales for female body dissatisfaction assessment on two dimensions: thin-ideal and muscularity-ideal

Background: Body dissatisfaction influences women’s mental and physical health. To date, most research has focused on body dissatisfaction in relation to the ‘thin-ideal’. Thus, the association between body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptomatology and muscularity-ideal in women is less clear. Lack of understanding is underpinned by the lack of reliable and valid muscularity-related assessments for women. To address this need, we developed, tested and re-tested two new body dissatisfaction scales: The Female Body Scale (FBS; adiposity dimension) and Female Fit Body Scale (FFITBS; muscularity dimension).Methods: One hundred and fifty-two women in the United Kingdom rated which body figure best represented their current and ideal body, completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0), and their body composition was measured. During re-test, the EDE-Q 6.0 and Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS) were completed.Results: Both the FBS and the FFITBS were found to be valid and reliable, and distinct types of body dissatisfaction were identified. Higher EDE-Q scores corresponded with greater body dissatisfaction scores on both the FBS and FFITBS. Thin-ideal (FBS) and larger/muscularity-ideal (FFITBS) body dissatisfaction predicted higher scores on the DMS. The muscularity scale (FFITBS) uniquely revealed that 28% of participants indicated body dissatisfaction toward the larger-muscularity-ideal.Conclusions: Results reveal distinct dimensions of body dissatisfaction. These new, validated scales may be utilized to quickly identify eating disorder risk in women as a preventative assessment for clinicians and inform female-focused body-image and eating disorder research

The impact of hyperbole on perception of victim testimony

This paper investigates how individuals perceive hyperbole in victim statements. Despite being one of the most commonly used literary tropes, the comprehension and cognition of hyperbole has been largely ignored in the psycholinguistics literature, and despite detailed literature outlining the emotional behaviour of victims, the use of figurative language has been largely ignored in the forensics literature. In the present study, two experiments were undertaken. In Experiment 1, 32 participants were recruited from groups with forensic experience or training. Participants were presented with 16 victim statements. Eight contained a number of hyperbolic phrases and eight contained non-hyperbolic counterparts. After reading each statement, participants were asked to answer questions that would quantify perceived credibility on accounts of belief, sympathy, victim-impact, and likeability. The results from Experiment 1 showed that hyperbolic speech made a significant negative impact on all four credibility measures. In Experiment 2, 32 jury-eligible individuals performed the same task. Results from this experiment demonstrated that the use of hyperbole made testimonies more believable and made the victim seem more impacted. Results are discussed in terms of the real-world implications of using hyperbolic language, and individual differences in the comprehension of and reaction to, figurative statements

Perspective effects during reading: evidence from text change-detection

We report two text change-detection studies in which we investigate the influence of reading perspective on text memory. In Experiment 1, participants read from the perspective of one of two characters in a series of short stories, and word changes were either semantically close or distant. Participants correctly reported more changes to perspective-relevant than -irrelevant words, and for distant than close changes. However, distance and perspective did not interact, suggesting that adopting a particular perspective did not lead to a more fine-grained analysis of perspective-relevant information. In Experiment 2, participants read one long narrative from the perspective of either a burglar or house-buyer. Results showed that only participants with a low working memory span showed perspective effects, suggesting that individual differences in working memory capacity appear to influence processing of perspective-relevant information

Introduction to the special issue on new approaches to figurative language research

The use and interpretation of figurative expressions (e.g., irony, idiom, and metaphor) is an integral part of everyday human communication. Thus, the ability to comprehend figurative language underpins successful communication and social functioning. Despite this, there is an ongoing debate regarding the fundamental cognitive and neural processes that support figurative language comprehension. In addition, relatively little is known regarding the additional challenges that can be faced in many situations, for example, when communicating in one’s second language, or with partners from a different culture, or when integrating information across different modalities. The purpose of this special issue is to showcase some of the latest research in this area, utilizing state of the art methods to examine comprehension (e.g., eye-tracking and EEG) and investigating how certain factors, such as cultural and individual differences and multimodal stimuli affect the comprehension process

The use of colour on the labelling of medicines

Medication errors occur as a result of a breakdown in the overall system of prescribing, dispensing, and administration of a drug. Problems with packaging and labelling can be thought of as being latent conditions in the system that can predispose to errors during dispensing and administration. Errors often arise through different strengths of the same product and different products from the same manufacturer having similar packaging. One possible way to aid to product differentiation is to use colour, however, whether or not colour is an appropriate aid to the correct identification of a product is a controversial issue. We present a series of visual search studies investigating the use of colour on drug labelling as a systems change to aid the identification of drug products. Participants were given the task of searching for a target drug product amongst a range of products. In some trials colour could be used as a cue to product identification. Findings provide support for the judicious, or unambiguous use of colour on the packaging and labelling of medicines; participants made fewer errors when colour was an unambiguous cue to identity, but made more errors when similar products were also the same colour

What is the difference between irony and sarcasm? An fMRI study

Verbal irony is a figure of speech that communicates the opposite of what is said, while sarcasm is a form of irony that is directed at a person, with the intent to criticise. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the aim of mapping the neural networks involved in the processing of sarcastic and non-sarcastic irony. Participants read short texts describing an interaction between two characters, which ended in either a literal, sarcastic, or non-sarcastic ironic comment. Results showed that the mentalising network (mPFC) and semantic network (IFG) were more activated for non-sarcastic irony than for literal controls. This would suggest that interpreting this kind of language involves understanding that the speaker does not mean what they literally say, as well as processes involved in conflict detection and resolution. Sarcastic irony recruited more of the semantic network, as well as areas associated with humour appreciation and subcortical structures, indicating that more complex neural mechanisms underlie the comprehension of sarcastic versus non-sarcastic irony

Investigating effects of emoji on neutral narrative text: evidence from eye movements and perceived emotional valence

Digital images of faces such as emoji in virtual communication have become increasingly popular, but current research findings are inconsistent regarding their emotional effects on perceptions of text. Similarly, emoji effects on reading behaviours are largely unknown and require further examination. The present study (N = 41) investigated how the position and emotional valence of emoji in neutral narrative sentences influenced eye movements during reading and perceptions of sentence valence. Participants read neutral narrative sentences containing smiling or frowning emoji in sentence-initial or sentence-final positions and rated the perceived emotional valence of the sentence. Results from linear mixed-effects models demonstrated significantly longer fixations on sentence-final emoji and longer sentence reading times when emoji were in sentence-final positions. These findings are comparable to sentence ‘wrap-up’ effects witnessed in the processing of lexical units during sentence reading, providing new evidence towards the way readers integrate emoji into contextual processing. However, no impact of emoji valence or position on first-pass target word processing or sentence-valence ratings were found. This would refute previous suggestions that digital faces influence text valence, raising questions about reader preference for emoji or sentence sentiment, the influence of sentence formatting, and delivery/display mechanism on these effects