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Aging News & Information
Researchers Find Older Folks Don't Get the Joke
Take my grandmother, please
By Jennie Iverson
Aug. 1, 2007 -- It's no laughing matter that older
adults have a tougher time understanding basic jokes than do younger
adults. A new study says humor comprehension in senior citizens
functions in a different fashion than humor comprehension in younger
adults.
It's partially due to a cognitive decline
associated with age, according to Washington University in St. Louis
researchers Wingyun Mak, a graduate student in psychology in Arts &
Sciences, and Brian Carpenter, Ph.D., Washington University associate
professor of psychology.
The researchers studied older adults from a
university subject pool as well as undergraduate students. The subjects
participated in tests that indicated their ability to complete jokes
accurately as well as tests that indicated their cognitive capabilities
in areas of abstract reasoning, short-term memory, and cognitive
flexibility. Overall, older adults demonstrated lower performance on
both tests of cognitive ability as well as tests of humor comprehension
than did younger adults.
"However, just because you're an older adult does
not mean that you can't understand humor. All hope is not lost," said
Mak.
"This is just the first step in understanding how
humor comprehension functions in older adults."
There are likely a multitude of factors, like
previous experiences, preferences, and personality that also contribute
to how well someone understands different types of humor.
The hope would be that this study and future
research would allow researchers to gain a greater understanding of the
relationship between cognition and humor comprehension. Perhaps down the
line, this knowledge may inform the way humor is integrated into
programs targeted at improving the quality of life for older adults.
The paper, published in the Journal of the
International Neuropsychological Society, was based on the theory that
humor comprehension is a result of resolving incongruitiesresolving the
conflict between the expected and the actual, which requires a
combination of cognitive skills. As older adults age, they experience
cognitive declines that the researchers indicate affect their ability to
comprehend humor.
Duh, I don't get it
The measure used, the Joke and Story Completion
Test, was developed by Hiram Brownell in 1983. A joke stem was presented
with four different endings including the correct humorous ending; a
humorous nonsequitur an ending that does not make sense with the joke
stem but is funny in and of itself; an unhumorous straightforward
answer; and an unhumorous, unrelated nonsequitur. The correct "funny"
answer required that the participant integrate the three different
cognitive measures tested in the study abstract reasoning, short-term
memory, and cognitive flexibility.
Previous researchers have attributed some of the
age-related deficits in humor comprehension to deficits in frontal
lobe-mediated abilities. Mak and Carpenter's research supports this
claim.
In addition, Mak and Carpenter added an element
previously untested in humor comprehension studies they included both
a nonverbal joke completion test that structurally mirrored the verbal
joke completion measure, allowing them to compare between the nonverbal
and verbal completion tests.
Laughter is a physical activity it burns
calories, strengthens abdominal muscles, and boosts the immune system,
among other benefits. Although they did not study the specific benefits
of laughter and humor, it has been well documented that, as Mak said,
"It can't hurt your physical state to be able to understand humor."
Laughter also has sociological benefits and plays a
role in building and maintaining relationships. Thus, many older adult
day services and programs incorporate humor as a way to improve both
physical and psychological aspects of participants' lives.
The idea that humor can help older adults cope with
life-changing events is not a new one, but relatively unstudied by
researchers. "The holy grail is, of course, humor appreciation.
Understanding how humor comprehension works in older adults is the first
step in this process," said Carpenter.
Humor comprehension, not humor appreciation
Previous work has looked at humor appreciation and
humor comprehension simultaneously. Mak and Carpenter strove to study
only the aspect of comprehension in hopes of understanding the step that
occurs before one can appreciate humor.
"Humor is a big part of enjoying life and everyday
relationships," Mak said.
Understanding the relationship between humor
comprehension and cognition may eventually facilitate the way humor is
integrated into programs or therapies for older adults.
So when your grandparents or older relatives say
that they "just don't understand" your movies or your favorite
comedians, there may be more at work than just generational differences
in what they as appreciate as "funny."
They legitimately may not get the jokes. That being
said, researchers are just beginning to "tease" out ways to prevent
cognitive decline in older adults, and hopefully one day grandchildren
and their grandparents will be able to giggle at the same bad jokes.
Appreciating the same comedian is a whole other can of peanut brittle
filled with fake snakes.
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