Getting it: A predictive processing approach to irony comprehension

Fabry, Regina E.

doi:10.1007/s11229-019-02470-9

Cited by 22 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…This suggests that making the comparison explicit makes the processing of the intended meaning less taxing for them, allowing them to use familiarity information during the interpretation of similes. In general, the findings are in line with the predictive coding theory (Fabry, 2019;Firston et al, 2006), which holds that factors such as familiarity, sentence complexity, and readers' proficiency affect the predictability of upcoming text.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…However, this effect may be cancelled out for very unfamiliar similes and metaphors. These hypotheses are in line with the predictive coding theory described above (Fabry, 2019;Friston, et al, 2006).…”

Section: Overview Of the Present Studysupporting

confidence: 85%

“…This replicates the previous findings (e.g., Ashby et al, 2018), and is in line with theories proposing similes to be faster to process than novel metaphors (e.g., Bowdle & Getner, 2005). One possible explanation for this finding is that the word "like" makes the figurative expression more predictable in text by making the comparison explicit (e.g., Fabry, 2019). In contrast, for nominal metaphors, the X is Y form doesn't explicitly signal figurative meaning, making metaphors harder to predict (i.e., increasing the amount of prediction error) and resulting into longer reading times.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though the theoretical views introduced above provide accounts of how certain textual features impact comprehension of metaphors and similes, none of them provides a view that could accommodate individual differences in the processing and comprehending of metaphors and similes. The predictive coding theory (Fabry, 2019;Friston, Kilner, & Harrison, 2006) can be used to explain how individual differences impact comprehension. The theory is based on the assumption that all biological systems minimize the amount of free energy, which is the amount of work that can be extracted from the system (free energy principle, e.g., Friston et al, 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theory is based on the assumption that all biological systems minimize the amount of free energy, which is the amount of work that can be extracted from the system (free energy principle, e.g., Friston et al, 2006). To minimize free energy, systems aim to minimize prediction error, which is the key element of this theory from the perspective of figurative language processing (Fabry, 2019). Perception, cognition, and emotion are then realized by the continuous minimization of prediction error.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes

Olkoniemi¹,

Bertram²,

Kaakinen³

2020

Preprint

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Very little is known about the processes underlying second language (L2) speakers’ understanding of written metaphors and similes. Most of the theories on figurative language comprehension do not consider reader-related factors. In the study, we used eye-tracking to examine how native Finnish speakers (N = 63) read written English nominal metaphors (“education is a stairway”) and similes (“education is like a stairway”). Identical topic–vehicle pairs were used in both conditions. After reading, participants evaluated familiarity of each pair. English proficiency was measured using the Bilingual-language Profile Questionnaire and the Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English. The results showed that readers were more likely to regress within metaphors than within similes, indicating that processing metaphors requires more processing effort than processing similes. The familiarity of a metaphor and L2 English proficiency modulated this effect. The results are discussed in the light of current theories on figurative language processing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Overview Of the Present Studysupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes

Olkoniemi¹,

Bertram²,

Kaakinen³

2020

Preprint

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A co-citation analysis of cross-disciplinarity in the empirically-informed philosophy of mind

Yan

Liao

2023

Synthese

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Empirically-informed philosophy of mind (EIPM) has become a dominant research style in the 21st century. EIPM relies on empirical results in various ways. However, the extant literature lacks an empirical description of how EIPM philosophers rely on empirical results. Moreover, though EIPM is essentially a form of cross-disciplinary research, it has not been analyzed as cross-disciplinary research so far. We aim to fill the above two gaps in the literature by producing quantitative and qualitative descriptions of EIPM as a kind of cross-disciplinary research. Our descriptions aim to enable metaphilosophers to evaluate EIPM methodologically and epistemically. Our analyses use co-citation and categorization analyses informed by the literature on interdisciplinarity. We present five sets of descriptions and identify the three most common types of cross-disciplinary interactions in EIPM. The resulting descriptions enable us to locate two metaphilosophical challenges for EIPM philosophers. One concerns how they should incorporate empirical results in different disciplinary contexts, and the other concerns which theoretical virtue(s) they should aim for when tinkering with scientific theories.

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Literalism in Autistic People: a Predictive Processing Proposal

Vicente,

Michel,

Petrolini

2023

Rev.Phil.Psych.

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Autistic individuals are commonly said – and also consider themselves – to be excessively literalist, in the sense that they tend to prefer literal interpretations of words and utterances. This literalist bias seems to be fairly specific to autism and still lacks a convincing explanation. In this paper we explore a novel hypothesis that has the potential to account for the literalist bias in autism. We argue that literalism results from an atypical functioning of the predictive system: specifically, an atypical balance between predictions and error signals in language processing may make individuals more uncertain about their own predictions. Such uncertainty is then often resolved by resorting to the safest interpretation, that is, the literal one. We start by reviewing existing explanations of other autistic traits that appeal to predictive processing. We then apply these insights to language, by showing that predictions play a key role in everyday comprehension and that a low level of confidence in one’s own predictions is likely to escalate comprehension difficulties. Finally, we take a deeper look at non-literal uses of language by discussing the case of metaphors, to illustrate how a predictive processing account offers a promising explanation of the literalist bias in autism.

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Getting it: A predictive processing approach to irony comprehension

Cited by 22 publications

References 131 publications

Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes

Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes

A co-citation analysis of cross-disciplinarity in the empirically-informed philosophy of mind

Literalism in Autistic People: a Predictive Processing Proposal

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