Stimulus Characteristics Affect Humor Processing in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

Samson, Andrea Christiane; Hegenloh, Michael

doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0885-2

Cited by 66 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In contrast to the study in which cartoons (line drawings) were presented to adults with AS (Samson and Hegenloh 2010), the groups in the present study did not differ in how well they could explain the punch lines of the slapstick scenes. This can be attributed to the fundamental differences in the stimulus characteristics between the studies.…”

Section: Humorous Film Clipscontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…The current study clearly indicated that children with AS enjoy humorous material as much as healthy children do, if the humor elements are simple and the incongruence can be perceived independently from theory of mind requirements, inferential demands, or language abilities, as was the case in the slapstick scenes of the present study. This is in accordance with previous experimental evidence, indicating that adult individuals with AS showed reduced affective responsiveness to cartoons comprising humor elements that were semantic or theory of mind dependent in nature, but rated visual puns as funny as healthy controls did (Samson and Hegenloh 2010). Other experimental studies focusing on humor production or using jokes requiring a variety of cognitive functions to be able to recognize the humor are not directly comparable with the present experiment (Emerich et al 2003;James and Tager-Flusberg 1994;Ozonoff and Miller 1996).…”

Section: Humorous Film Clipssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…ASD individuals may focus on these visual details to a greater extent than normally developed individuals and therefore fail in getting the joke (Samson and Hegenloh 2010). The purpose of the present study was to examine whether children with Asperger's syndrome differ from typically developing children in the appreciation of simple humor material in which cognitive requirements that are commonly impaired in ASD are reduced to a minimum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In research literature a variety of humor assessment materials were published such as different cartoons, comic, jokes etc. Important issues in this context are differences between studies in stimulus characteristics, particularly the differences in the cognitive requirements that the stimulus pose on the perceiver (Samson and Hegenloh 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while various executive functions have been shown to be impaired in individuals with ASD, no definitive neuropsychological pattern unique to individuals with ASD has been identified at this time (Kleinhans et al 2005). Above all, less cognitive flexibility and a weak central coherence might explain the reduced ability of individuals with ASD to understand the global meaning of a joke (Emerich et al 2003;Samson and Hegenloh 2010). In the theory of weak central coherence, a tendency to attend to details, rather than to understand the global meaning of a situation is hypothesized to lead to a failure to get the joke.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

Weiss

Gschaidbauer²,

Samson

et al. 2013

Humor

Self Cite

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Abstract:The aim of the present study was to examine whether children with Asperger's syndrome differ from typically developing children in the appreciation of and behavioral responses to simple slapstick type humor, in which cognitive requirements that are commonly impaired in autism spectrum disorders are reduced to a minimum. Short slapstick scenes and matched non-humorous control scenes were extracted from popular movies to produce an appropriate humor assessment material. Twenty-four boys with Asperger's syndrome (5 to 14 years) and 24 age-matched typically developed controls were tested. The results indicated that children with Asperger's syndrome enjoy humorous material as much as healthy children do, if the humor elements are simple and the incongruence can be perceived independently from theory of mind requirements, inferential demands, or language abilities. However, similar funniness ratings and behavioral expressions of mirth to the humorous scenes, but relatively higher values in response to the non-humorous scenes, suggested that the autistic children did not discriminate non-humorous from humorous stimuli as sensitively as the typically developing children did. Moreover, in autistic children, the outwards displays of emotion did not match their reports of subjective amusement. This dissociation may relate to the social interaction and communication difficulties in autism spectrum disorders.

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Section: Humorous Film Clipscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Humorous Film Clipssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

Weiss

Gschaidbauer²,

Samson

et al. 2013

Humor

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

PROTOCOL: Video‐based interventions for promoting positive social behaviour in children with autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Keenan

Thurston²,

Storey

et al. 2021

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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This is the protocol for a Campbell review. The primary objective for this review is summarising the effectiveness of video-based interventions (VBI) in promoting prosocial behaviours in a population of young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The research questions employed to fulfil this objective include: (1) Do VBI improve prosocial behaviours in children with ASD? (2) Which social skills and interactive behaviours are most successful? (3) Do VBI generally have successful rates of skill generalisation and response maintenance? (4) Do demographic characteristics (age, gender) of participants influence the effectiveness of VBI's?ASD is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition found among all races and socioeconomic groups (Wolff, 2004). ASD effects more than 1 in 100 people in the United Kingdom with diagnosis commonly taking place after the age of 3. The prevalence of ASD diagnoses is also rising, which is thought to be a result of a combination of better public awareness and improved assessment methods (Fombonne, 2005). It affects males more frequently than females with a ratio of 5:1 (Russell et al., 2014); due to the prevalence differences between males and females, there is currently a wealth of research primarily concerned with its biological origins (see Abrahams & Geschwind, 2008 for a review).The International Classification of diseases, eleventh edition (ICD-11, 2018) characterises ASD by repetitive and restrictive interests and behaviours, where deficits in social interaction and communication are exhibited. Due to these impairments in social interaction and communication, individuals with ASD face difficulty in expressing their wants and needs which may subsequently result in problem behaviours such as aggression and self-injury as an alternative communication strategy (Chiang, 2008;Murphy et al., 2009). There are a variety of diagnostic and screening tools for Autism including; The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler et al., 1980); the Pervasive Developmental Disorder Screening Test (Siegel et al., 1986); the checklist for Autism in Toddlers ( Baron-Cohen et al., 1992); the Children's Social Behaviour Questionnaire (Berument et al., 1999); the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Social Responsiveness Scale . Despite their wide-use, efforts are still being made to improve the diagnostic process for individuals displaying ASD symptoms. The ADI-R, which is the current standard of assessment for ASD, takes over 2 h to complete which poses a threat to feasibility for use in clinical settings which are already oversubscribed with extensive waiting times for families and individuals seeking diagnosis. The Autism Screening Questionnaire has demonstrated potential in the diagnostic process, however, each of its 40 items assess either the presence or absence of a given symptom rather than using a quantitative scale to rate symptom severity therefore it has exhibited floor effects in previous research (Rutter et al., 1999). The most recent assessment tool, the Social Responsivene...

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Teaching comprehension of double‐meaning jokes to young children

Jackson

Nuñez

Maraach

et al. 2021

J of App Behav Analysis

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Various forms of humor are an important aspect of social interactions, even at an early age. Humor comprehension is a repertoire that is said to emerge between the ages of 7 and 11 years, and this is primarily attributed to a child's level of cognitive development. The behavioral literature has suggested that various forms of complex verbal behavior, including the use and comprehension of humor, are learned operants that can be taught using systematic teaching procedures. The current study used multiple exemplar training and a three-step error correction procedure to teach comprehension of double-meaning jokes to 4 children (2 females and 2 males) aged between 5 and 6.5 years old. All participants demonstrated humor comprehension and appreciation, across multiple exemplars, following training, and maintained this at follow-up. Implications for use with clinical populations are discussed.

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Stimulus Characteristics Affect Humor Processing in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

Cited by 66 publications

References 38 publications

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

PROTOCOL: Video‐based interventions for promoting positive social behaviour in children with autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Teaching comprehension of double‐meaning jokes to young children

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