Dr. Josiane Boutonnet, Univ. of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK:

Ironic communication

Dipl.Psych. Annegret Braun, Frankfurt  a.M., BRD:

Der Einfluss herabsetzender Witzinhalte auf das Lustigkeitsempfinden am Beispiel politischen Humors: Eine Pilotstudie

Dr. Joerg Raewel, Zuerich, Switzerland

The relationship between irony and sarcasm

Soraya Shams, The member of Islamic Azad University of Roudehen Branche, Tehran, Iran:

The effectiveness of Mood Inductive Methods (Facial expressions, Positive Imagination, & positive statements) on the happiness among students in the city of Isfahan

Prof. Betsie van der Westhuizen, School of Languages, Faculty of Arts, North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)            Potchefstroom 2520, South-Africa:

Humour in the world of children`s literature: a comparative approach

Abstracts

Dr. Joerg Raewel, Zuerich, Switzerland

The relationship between irony and sarcasm

Abstract: Given the fact that it is possible to distinguish different forms of humor (e.g., irony, sarcasm, parody, jokes, nonsense, etc.), then, on one hand, it is necessary to describe what these different forms have in common to justify them as forms of humor. Consequently, the GTVH, for example, claims that all forms of verbal humor are based on script oppositions. On the other hand, to understand these forms it is necessary to analyze how different forms of humor  are distinguished from each other.

Based on a broader approach — that of analyzing humor as a form of communication within the paradigm of systems theory (see Räwel, J. (2005), Humor als Kommunikationsmedium, Universitätsverlag Konstanz) — this presentation shows both the commonalities and dissimilarities of different forms of humor by means of irony and sarcasm as rhetorical figures. Irony and sarcasm are described as particular forms of communication (within humor as media of communication) that reflect communication itself. The conceptualization of the different rhetorical figures is based on the theory of communication as brought forth by Niklas Luhmann in systems theory. Communication is not understood as the (mutual) transmission of information between subjects, but as the sequential, intra-systemic selection of the communicative distinctions of information, utterance, and understanding (for instance, within an interaction system). Communication, in this view, thus gains a momentum of its own (as a “social fact”) that cannot be determined completely through the individual subject (consciousness). Just as the ever-individual consciousness cannot completely be determined through communication. Thus, communication (the “social sphere”) and consciousness (the individual subject) are described by systems theory as a mutually given system-environment-relationship.

This presentation begins with an introduction of the conceptualization of communication within the systems theory; since it is particularly necessary to explain what has to be understood as the reflection of communication (within communication). Based upon these explanations, it is shown what irony and sarcasm have in common, but also what distinguishes them from one another. It is therefore possible – in a very selective way – to describe irony as a self-referential form, and sarcasm as an external-referential form, of the reflection of communication within communication.

Soraya Shams

The member of Islamic Azad University of Roudehen Branche

The effectiveness of Mood Inductive Methods (Facial expressions, Positive Imagination, & positive statements) on the happiness among students in the city of Isfahan

Recently, much attention has been paid to happiness and its enhancement. Several studies have shown that the most influential factors in happiness, are cognitive factors and subjective experiences (rather than objective ones).

In the present research, I have tried to study the influence of the Mood Inductive Methods on the rate of happiness among the Iranian students. These  methods are easy to learn  and their effectiveness have been proved through many studies ,thus I have chosen them.

The research was conducted in eight high schools in a region of the city of Esfahan, 4 of them  were girls  and the remaining 4  classes were boys(F/4 males and S/6 females)  . In each high school, one class was selected for the study.

In each  set of  groups(males/females) , 3 of the classes were designated as the experimental groups and the fourth class as the control group. All choices were randomly made.

All the students filled out the Oxford Happiness Inventory as a pre-test phase. Then, the experimental groups (but not the control groups) in each set of sexes, received the one of the three methods of the Mood Induction. Afterwards, the students filled out the Inventory as a post-test phase. After a month, all subjects filled out the Inventory again.

The data gathered from the three inventory sets were then analyzed by SPSS program. The results showed that, these methods had a significant effect on enhancing and maintaining the happiness rate among the tested students , Another important finding of this research was this notion that although  there was no difference in the degree of happiness of males and females in post test phase but in the follow up data we  have seen  that the happiness of boys exceed the happiness of girls . That means the induced sense of happiness in boys lasted for longer time than girls .

Krystyna Swirszcz1, Mikhail Zvyagintsev2, Hermann Ackermann1, Klaus Mathiak2

Does watching fearful faces cause the lateralized activation of amygdala?

The role of phase-encoding direction in fMRI studies

1Center for Neurology, University of Tuebingen, Germany

2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Most of functional neuroimaging studies of emotion processing report lateralized activation of the amygdala, more often to the left than to the right (Baas, 2004).  Echo-planar imaging (EPI) is widely used for functional MRI but suffers from dephasing and strong asymmetric distortions, most prominent along the phase-encoding (PE) direction.  Asymmetries of amygdala activation can be expected to depend upon those artifacts.  Specialized multi-echo EPI, acquiring opposite phase-encoding directions in a single shot, should be implemented to investigate the effects of PE on amygdala lateralization.

     Six healthy male subjects participated in the study. For the stimulation, presentation of neutral and fearful faces (Ekman, 1976) was applied.  All examinations were conducted on a 3 T whole-body MR scanner (Magnetom Trio, Siemens, Erlangen).  For functional measurements, a multi-echo EPI sequence was applied to collect 16 coronal slices (matrix size 64x48, voxel size 3x3x4 mm, TR = 2 s, TEs = 23/47/71 ms, FA = 70°).  Preprocessing encompassed undistortion with contrast-to-noise optimization (Weiskopf, 2005), normalization and spatial smoothing.  Statistical analysis was performed using single-subject analyses based on a general linear model of a block design (SPM2 software package).  We conducted a region of interest analysis confined to the amygdala.  The obtained amygdala activations were compared between the single echo methodology – comparable to standard EPI – and the undistorted and optimized images. 

     Amygdala activations could be obtained in 5 out of the 6 subjects.  PE direction and polarity determined the distortions at the level of the amygdala.  In the preliminary data exploration, PE polarity and image contrast affected the activation patterns.  The optimized image combination exhibited the most consistent activation patterns.

     Our study supports the hypothesis that asymmetries in amygdala activation depend on phase encoding direction.  Our study supports the hypothesis that asymmetries in amygdala activation depend on phase encoding direction. Single-shot multi-echo EPI with alternating PE gradients helps to reduce and control for lateralized artifacts.

Baas, D. et al. (2004). Brain Res. Rev. 45, 96-103

Ekman, P. and Friesen, W.V. (1976). Pictures of Facial Affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists.

Weiskopf, N. et al. (2005). NeuroImage 24, 1068-1079

Supported by EU EST "Biomedical Imaging", DaimlerChrysler AG with DARPA AugCog, and SFB 550/B1.

Zaltsman, Rita, Ph.D.

The Comical as linguocultural Phenomenon – for example transcultural virtual distance learning

Webagentur, Augsburgerstr. 15, 72760 Reutlingen, zaltsman@web.de

The present work explores the impact of comical as a lingua-cultural phenomenon in computer-based distance education, especially regarding computer-mediated communication in virtual learning communities. E.Hall's concept of culture context has been used to specify linguistic, paralinguistic and graphical representation of comical in virtual discourse. The paper is based on the juxtaposition of high/low context cultures (dichotomy East-West, communication barriers between culturally diverse learners). The analysis has shown that the ways of stress retrieval - irony, jokes, metaphors and language games -  are common for students representing contextually different cultures. This testifies to the fact that the perception of comical seen cross-culturally in e-learning settings is synchronised. Some implications which these findings raise are discussed and related to a widely disputed theme of global Internet culture.

Keywords: Cross-cultural, distance learning, humour, linguistics, culture.