Uncovering echoic mechanisms in verbal irony comprehension

Abstract Whereas some studies suggest that ironic praise necessitates a longer processing time than ironic criticism, others posit that the two are processed at comparable speeds. We hypothesize that the presence of an echoic antecedent within the preceding context may at least partially account for these conflicting findings. To investigate this matter, we analyzed reading times and accuracy stemming from two types of contexts: echoic and non-echoic. Our results demonstrate that ironic criticism was judged to be more ironic in both echoic and non-echoic contexts, while ironic praise was rated as more ironic in an echoic context than in a non-echoic context. Additionally, echoing contexts facilitate the comprehension of ironic criticism, but cause ironic praise to be processed more slowly. There was also an observed asymmetry between the two forms of irony. Ironic criticism demonstrated high accuracy and was rated as more ironic than ironic praise. Furthermore, ironic criticism was read faster in an echoic context, whereas performance was similar in a non-echoic context for both types. These findings suggest that echoing context affects ironic criticism and ironic praise differently, implying that distinct mechanisms may be at work in understanding irony in echoic and non-echoic contexts.