Abstract:

Background:
Irony is a figure of speech broadly used to elicit humour. While behavioural reactions to irony have been documented, psychophysiological reactions to irony are still largely unknown, especially in children.

Objective:
This project aims to determine the children’s autonomic nervous system reactivity to different types of irony and analyse the association of this reactivity with the children’s cognitive performance and social skills.

Methods:
A transversal study will be conducted with 175 children aged from 7 to 11 years-old, their mother or father, and teachers. After assuring that the child is not tired, sleepy or hungry, she/he will watch a 15-minute video composed of excerpts of stories and narratives, and will be asked to read the corresponding texts. These resources include both utterances involving different types of irony, and semantically related paraphrases not conveying any ironic intent. These tasks will be performed in a quiet semi-darkened room with a temperature of 20-22ºC. While watching the videos and reading the texts, the respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate and skin conductance will be assessed using the Ambulatory Monitoring of the Impedance Cardiogram (VU-AMS). The baseline heart rate, skin conductance and sinus arrhythmia will be measured before the stimuli presentation. The order of presentation of the video and corresponding text will be randomly assigned. At the end of the psychophysiological assessment, the cognitive assessment will take place using the “The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 3rdEd.” and the “Social Competence Nomination Form” tests, which will be administered by trained psychologists. While the child is performing the tasks previously described, his/her mother or father will be filling out the “Social and Demographic Questionnaire” and the “Perceived Social Competence Test”. The researchers will ensure that there are no missing answers after completion. The parents will be given a mail envelope with the “Social Skills Rating System to Children - Teacher Form” to handle the child’s teacher for completion and return it.

Discussion:
The relevance of the results achieved will be discussed, taking into consideration their future applications, namely in the learning context. We believe that this study will provide new insights on the impact of irony on children, crucial for the development of innovative, evidence-based pedagogical tools and resources.

Keywords:

Irony, Psychophysiological Reactivity, Social Skills, Children’s Literature, Comparable Corpus, Literal vs Figurative Language.