The spontaneous mirth response and comprehension of verbal humor were compared in gifted students and students from the general population. A total of 120 students in grades four, six, and eight participated in the study. A twenty-item instrument containing age-appropriate riddles, jokes, puns, selections of satire, and nonhumorous items was developed by the researcher to gather data. The results indicated that the gifted subjects performed significantly higher in spontaneous mirth response and comprehension than the general population group. This finding lends support to the assumption that gifted children noticeably have a “good sense of humor,” a characteristic often attributed to them as a group. No significant differences were discovered between either group with respect to gender, and grade level explained only part of the difference in the scores between the groups. The gifted group also had higher mean scores for spontaneous mirth response and comprehension on the pun and satire items. On the basis of the findings, implications for classroom use and teacher preparation are addressed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarnettL.FiscellaJ. (1985). A child by any other name … a comparison of the playfulness of gifted and nongifted children. Gifted Child Quarterly, 29, 61–66.
2.
BernsteinD. (1986). The development of humor: Implications for assessment and intervention. Topics in Language Disorders, 6, 65–71.
3.
BleedornB. (1982). Humor as an indicator of giftedness. Roeper Review, 4, 33–34.
4.
BrodzinskyD. (1975). The role of conceptual tempo and stimulus characteristics in children's humor development. Developmental Psychology, 11, 843–850.
5.
BrodzinskyD. (1977). Children's comprehension and appreciation of verbal jokes in relation to conceptual tempo. Child Development, 48, 960–967.
6.
BrownJ. (1982). Supplementary materials for academically gifted English students. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 5(1), 67–73.
7.
BrunoR.JohnsonJ.SimonJ. (1987). Perception of humor by regular class students and students with learning disabilities or mild mental retardation. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20, 568–570.
8.
CarsonD.SkarpnessL.SchultzN.McGheeP. (1986). Temperament and communicative competence as predictors of young children's humor. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 32, 415–426.
9.
ClarkB. (1988). Growing up gifted (3rd ed.). Columbus: Merrill Publishing.
10.
CupchikG.LeventhalH. (1974). Consistency between expressive behavior and the evaluation of humorous stimuli: The role of sex and self-observation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 429–442.
11.
DavisG.RimmS. (1985). Education of the gifted and talented. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
12.
FabriziM.PollioH. (1987). A naturalistic study of humorous activity in a third, seventh, and eleventh grade classroom. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33, 107–128.
FoxL.BrodyL.TobinD. (1983). Learning disabled/gifted children: Identification and programming. Baltimore: University Park Press.
15.
FrithG.MimsA. (1984). Teaching gifted students to make verbal presentations. Gifted Child Quarterly, 28, 45–47.
16.
GallagherJ. (1985). Teaching the gifted child (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
17.
GreenlawM.McIntoshM. (1986). Literature for use with gifted children. Childhood Education, 62, 281–286.
18.
JohnsonM. (1976). I think my teacher is a…. Learning, 4, 36–38.
19.
KarnesM., & Associates. (1978). Preschool talent checklists manual. Urbana, IL: Institute for Child Behavior and Development, University of Illinois.
20.
KitanoM.KirbyD. (1986). Gifted education: A comprehensive view. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
21.
KleinA. (1985). Humor comprehension and humor appreciation of cognitively oriented humor: A study of kindergarten children. Child Study Journal, 15, 223–235.
22.
KramerL. (1986). Career awareness and personal development: A naturalistic study of gifted adolescent girls' concerns. Adolescence, 21, 123–131.
23.
McCormackA. (1979). Creativity—A funny thing. Science and Children, 16, 48–50.
PickeringE.PickeringA.BuchananM. (1987). LD and non-handicapped boys' comprehension of cartoon humor. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 10, 45–51.
28.
PledgieT. (1982). Giftedness among handicapped children: Identification and programming development. Journal of Special Education, 16, 221–227.
29.
PrenticeN.FathmanR. (1975). Joking riddles: A developmental index of children's humor. Developmental Psychology, 11, 210–216.
30.
RedlichF.LevineJ.SohlerT. (1951). A mirth response test: Preliminary report on a psychodiagnostic technique utilizing dynamics of humor. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21, 717–734.
31.
RenzulliJ. (1976). Scales for rating behavioral characteristics of superior students. Storrs, CT: Creative Learning Press.
32.
RenzulliJ.HartmanR. (1971). Scale for rating behavioral characteristics of superior students. Exceptional Children, 38(3), 243–248.
33.
SandersD. (1986). Sign language in the production and appreciation of humor by deaf children. Sign Language Studies, 50, 59–72.
34.
SellinD.BirchJ. (1981). Psychoeducational development of gifted and talented learners. Rockville, MD: Aspen Systems Corporation.
35.
ShultzT.HoribeF. (1974). Development of the appreciation of verbal jokes. Developmental Psychology, 10, 13–20.
36.
SiskD. (1978). “Initiative.” Presentation at the National Institute on Leadership Training and the Gifted. Chicago, IL.
37.
TaitP.WardM. (1982). The comprehension of verbal humor by visually impaired children. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 10, 144–147.
38.
ZiglerE.LevineJ.GouldL. (1966). Cognitive processes in the development of children's appreciation of humor. Child Development, 37, 507–518.
