Joan Kaplan

Bio: Joan Kaplan is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: Irony & Utterance. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 8 publications receiving 801 citations.

Why not say it directly? The social functions of irony

Abstract: In three experiments, we investigated the social payoffs of speaking ironically. In Experiment 1, participants rated videotaped ironic remarks (criticisms and compliments) as funnier than literal remarks, but no more or less status enhancing. In Experiment 2, participants listened to audiotaped ironic criticisms and compliments. Ironic compliments were rated as more insulting than literal compliments, but ironic criticisms were found to be less insulting than literal criticisms. In Experiment 3, participants read literal or ironic criticisms. Ironic comments were rated as more amusing than literal ones. When irony was directed at the addressee's poor performance, it served to protect the addressee's face by softening the criticism. When irony was directed at the addressee's offensive behavior, it served to protect the speaker's face by showing the speaker as less angry and more in control. In addition, irony damaged the speaker—addressee relationship less than did literal criticism. Taken together, these ...

Children's Understanding of the Meaning and Functions of Verbal Irony

Abstract: We investigated children's understanding of irony and sensitivity to irony's meanness and humor. In Study 1, 89 participants (5-6-year-olds, 8-9-year-olds, adults) heard ironic and literal criticisms, and literal compliments. Comprehension of irony emerged between 5 and 6 years of age. Ratings of humor increased with age; ratings of meanness did not (showing that all ages perceived irony as more muted than literal criticism). In Study 2, results from 135 participants (6-7-year-olds, 8-9-year-olds, and adults) replicated these findings and revealed the role of form and intonation. Thus, comprehension of irony emerges between 5 and 6 years of age, and sensitivity to the muting function develops prior to sensitivity to the humor function.

An advanced test of theory of mind: understanding of story characters' thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and adults.

Abstract: Research has suggested that the core handicaps of autism result from a specific impairment in theory of mind (ToM). However, this account has been challenged by the finding that a minority of autistic subjects pass 1st- and even 2nd-order ToM tests while remaining socially handicapped. In the present study, able autistic subjects who failed ToM tasks, those who passed 1st-order, and those who passed 2nd-order tasks were tested with a battery of more naturalistic and complex stories. Autistic subjects were impaired at providing context-appropriate mental state explanations for the story characters' nonliteral utterances, compared to normal and mentally handicapped controls. Performance on the stories was closely related to performance on standard ToM tasks, but even those autistic subjects who passed all ToM tests showed impairments on the more naturalistic story materials relative to normal adult controls.

Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence

Abstract: Introducing impoliteness 1. Understanding impoliteness I: face and social norms 2. Understanding impoliteness II: intentionality and emotions 3. Impoliteness metadiscourse 4. Conventionalised formulaic impoliteness and its intensification 5. Non-conventionalised impoliteness: implicational impoliteness 6. Impoliteness events: co-texts and contexts 7. Impoliteness events: functions 8. Conclusions.

TASIT: A new clinical tool for assessing social perception after traumatic brain injury.

Abstract: Objective To develop a clinically sensitive test of social perception for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design An assessment tool comprising videotaped vignettes and response probes was developed in successive stages and tested on both normal participants and those with TBI. Subjects A total of 169 normal adults and 7 adults with severe TBI (pilot studies), 283 normal adults, and 12 people with severe TBI (main studies). Main outcome measures "The Awareness of Social Inference Test" (TASIT) comprises videotaped vignettes of everyday social interactions and has three parts, each with alternate forms. The Emotion Evaluation Test (EET) assesses recognition of spontaneous emotional expression (happy, surprised, sad, anxious, angry, disgusted, and neutral). The Social Inference-Minimal (SI-M) test assesses comprehension of sincere versus sarcastic exchanges, whereas the Social Inference-Enriched test (SI-E) assesses lies versus sarcasm. In both SI-M and SI-E speaker demeanor (voice, facial expression) indicate the intended meaning of the exchange. In addition, the SI-E vignettes have other contextual clues that reveal the speakers' intentions. Performance on SI-E and SI-E is assessed via four standard questions per item probing for understanding of the emotions, intentions, beliefs, and meanings of the speakers and their exchanges. Results Groups taken from the pool of 283 normal adults achieved a high level of performance on all aspects of the test with some influence from both education and intelligence. The 12 people with TBI were poorer at judging emotions than were matched controls, with particular difficulties recognizing neutral items, fear, and disgust. They were as capable as matched controls when understanding sincere exchanges and lies but had difficulty with sarcasm. Conclusions TASIT is straightforward for people with a normal range of social skills while being sensitive to social perception deficits after traumatic brain injury.

Summation priming and coarse semantic coding in the right hemisphere

Abstract: There are now numerous observations of subtle right hemisphere (RH) contributions to language comprehension. It has been suggested that these contributions reflect coarse semantic coding in the RH. That is, the RH weakly activates large semantic fields---including concepts distantly related to the input word---whereas the left hemisphere (LH) strongly activates small semantic fields---limited to concepts closely related to the input (Beeman, 1993a,b). This makes the RH less effective at interpreting single words, but more sensitive to semantic overlap of multiple words. To test this theory, subjects read target words preceded by either “Summation” primes (three words each weakly related to the target) or Unrelated primes (three unrelated words), and target exposure duration was manipulated so that subjects correctly named about half the target words in each hemifield. In Experiment 1, subjects benefited more from Summation primes when naming target words presented to the left visual field-RH (Ivf-RH) than when naming target words presented to the right visual field-LH (rvf-LH), suggesting a RH advantage in coarse semantic coding. In Experiment 2, with a low proportion of related prime-target trials, subjects benefited more from “Direct” primes (one strong associate flanked by two unrelated words) than from Summation primes for rvf-LH target words, indicating that the LH activates closely related information much more strongly than distantly related information. Subjects benefited equally from both prime types for Ivf-RH target words, indicating that the RH activates closely related information only slightly more strongly, at best, than distantly related information. This suggests that the RH processes words with relatively coarser coding than the LH, a conclusion consistent with a recent suggestion that the RH coarsely codes visual input (Kosslyn, Chabris, Mar-solek, & Koenig, 1992).