Children's Use of Trait Information in Understanding Verbal Irony

Abstract

We investigated whether providing information about a speaker's personality traits would influence children's 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 children's 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.