The Origins of Intelligence in Children

Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research, and Applications.

Surprisingly little is known about the social dimensions of laughter in preschool children. We studied children's responses to amusing video clips in the presence or absence of peers. The sample consisted of 9 boys and 11 girls aged 31-49 months (M 39.8, SD 4.2) who watched three cartoons under three different conditions: individually, in pairs, or in groups of 6 or 8. The social viewing conditions showed significantly higher numbers of laughs and smiles than the individual viewing condition. On average children laughed eight times as much in company as on their own and smiled almost three times as much. No differences were found between pairs and groups, and no association was found between subjective funniness ratings and group size. This suggests that the presence of even a single social partner can change behavior in response to humorous material. It supports the idea that laughter and smiles are primarily flexible social signals rather than reflexive responses to humor.

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Social Facilitation of Laughter and Smiles in Preschool Children.

Although children understand intentions to joke and pretend by 2 or 3 years, it is unclear whether they distinguish these intentional acts Using a normativity paradigm, this study found (N = 72) 2-year-olds protest against jokes more than pretending, suggesting, for the first time, they distinguish these acts Furthermore, toddlers protested more generally after pretend than literal or joke contexts but only if intentional cues were used Additionally, children objected more to joking than pretending after pretend and literal contexts but not after joke contexts Thus, toddlers distinguish the intentional nature of pretending and joking Furthermore, a pretend intentional context establishes specific rules to be followed, whereas a joke intentional context allows an open space to perform various types of acts

/pdf/two-year-olds-distinguish-pretending-and-joking-koxic922ab.pdf

Two-Year-Olds Distinguish Pretending and Joking

Humor and preschoolers’ trust: Sensitivity to changing intentions

‘The Baby Laughter’ project (http://babylaughter.net) is a research programme in developmental psychology that uses online surveys and parent submitted videos to study baby laughter. We discuss how infant laughter has been neglected in the study of both humour and of developmental psychology. We describe our surveys and research methodology, together with some of the questions we hope they can address. Some preliminary results are presented together with illustrative comments from parents who took part. These results show that the topics of infant laughter track other cognitive developments, that it is an important form of communication and bond between parent and child and a marker of social and emotional engagement. We conclude by suggesting that the highly important role of laughter in early development has until now been underestimated.

Ishbel Addyman

Papers

The science of baby laughter

The science of baby laughter (4:2)