Memory for humorous cartoons

Incidental memory for three types of cartoons was compared: original cartoo ns, literal translations of the originals, and weird cartoons created by in serting incongruous material into the literal translations. In Experiment 1 , the three types of cartoons were mixed together in lists. In Experiment 2 , each list contained only two cartoon types. In both experiments, original cartoons were remembered better than the literal and the weird cartoons, w hereas the literal and the weird cartoons were equally well remembered. Til e detection of incongruities, or attempts to resolve those incongruities, c annot adequately explain the observed humor effects. The results were also inconsistent with both rehearsal and distinctiveness interpretations. Rathe r, humor per se appears to support good memory performance. perhaps partici pants elaborated or gave sustained attention to humorous material at the ex pense of less humorous material.