Contextual connections within puns: Effects on perceived humor and memory

The supposition that perceived humor or cleverness would be enhanced by add ing separate content to the alternative meanings of a pun was explored, usi ng Tom Swifties as the research vehicle. Because detecting a punning word r elationship might induce arousal, requiring more effort and attentional res ources for processing than noting a contextual connection, memory strength for adverbs was also examined using a recognition procedure. Five studies w ere conducted in which college students were asked to judge 24 Swifties (co ntent counterbalanced across participants) in which presence of pun and con text were manipulated. The punning relationship was primarily responsible f or perceived humor and cleverness. Presence of a pun also enhanced memory s trength (d') as long as the familiarization task focused on humor and cleve rness. Coherent context enhanced perceived cleverness inconsistently. It wa s suggested that a coherent contextual connection may make a greater contri bution in more lengthy forms of pun-based word play, such as fables or "sha ggy dog" stories.