Romain di Stasi, Rana Esseily, Lauriane Rat-Fischer Laboratoire Éthologie Cognition Développement (UR LECD), at Paris Nanterre University, Nanterre, France
Humour seems to have positive effects both socially and cognitively. Indeed, it reduces stress, improves social cohesion between individuals and has positive effects on learning in adults. In infants, we conducted a study that investigated the effect of humour on learning in a social learning context and showed that at 18 months of age, 94% of infants who laughed during a humorous demonstration of a tool use, reproduced the target action compared to only 30% of infants who did not laugh or when the demonstration was not humorous. The aim of the current study was twofold: (1) replicate this previous study with a large age range and (2) examine the age at which the understanding of humour appears during development, given that some authors consider that infants perceive humour as early as their first laughter around 5 months, while others argue that humour appears as soon as infants display pretend play behaviours around 18 months. In order to test these questions, we repeated our previous study with 70 infants aged between 14 to 22 months, in addition to a pretend play test. Our preliminary results suggest that the perception of humour appears around 18 months of age but does not seem to be correlated with pretend play. In addition, infants seem to learn better when they are exposed to a humorous demonstration regardless of whether they laugh or not. These results raise questions about the possible factors involved in humour and can explain the effect observed, namely incongruity and surprise.
