Attentional Resource Allocation of Verbal-Humor Processing: An ERP Study

As a high-demanding cognitive mental activity, verbal-humor processing consumes more attentional resources than non-humor processing, which has been demonstrated by several behavioral studies, but little examined at a real-time scale. Researchers dissociated verbal-humor processing into three stages: incongruity detection, incongruity resolution, and elaboration/mirth. Based on this three-stage model, the current study used electroencephalogram (EEG) to explore the attentional resource consumption of verbal-humor processing employing a dual-task paradigm in which sentence comprehension (humor, positive, neutral) was the primary task and arithmetical calculation (simple, difficult) was the secondary task. Participants' (N=38) behavioral performance and ERP/ERO measures in two tasks were analyzed. Results of comprehension tasks included aspects of ERPs and EROs. ERPs results of verbal-humor processing revealed significantly larger N400, LAN, and LPP activation indexing the three stages of verbal-humor processing. EROs results showed a significant theta power increase in the detection and mirth stages. Results of arithmetical tasks included aspects of behavior and ERPs. The behavioral data showed that the Reaction Times (RTs) of the arithmetical task after verbal-humor processing were longer than after positive and neutral ones. The ERPs results found the calculation after verbal-humor processing elicited significantly greater P1, P3a, P3b, and positive slow wave amplitudes, which reflected more resource allocation in the calculation to compensate for the resource preemption of verbal-humor processing. Finally, a multiple linear regression analysis showed an interaction of N400 and LPP predicted the prolonged RTs after verbal-humor processing, which indicated that the resource consumption in detection and mirth stages synergistically results in the decreased performance of subsequent arithmetical tasks. Furthermore, verbal-humor processing influences the whole time course of arithmetical calculation, and positive emotional arousal only influences the relatively early stage. It suggested that the resource consumption of verbal-humor processing is more from its cognitive demand than emotional arousal. Collectively, the behavioral, ERPs, and EROs results concurrently confirmed that verbal-humor processing consumed more attentional resources compared with non-humorous counterparts, and the detection and mirth stages contribute more to the consumption.