An Interactive Model Of Affect And Cognition To Construe Visual And Verbal Humors-a Functional And Cognitive Research Of Humor

Humor is produced with the receiver’s affect vibration in the involvement of the humorist’s text orprocesses. The affect switch is undertaken by the raising or lowering of force, the sharpening or softeningof focus based on cognitive appraisals, which constitutes the humorous attitudes of irony, mockery,ridicule and etc.The study of a prototypical emotional episode covers three layers of the implementational level, thefunctional level, and the algorithmic level. It involves the functional and cognitive study.Affect is implemented in the low path of the limbic system consisting of the “loss and disgustingsystem” and the “rewarding system”, in which amygdalus is responsible for negative affect whereasnucleus accumbens for positive affect. The affect shift between the two systems results in humor. Affect isinfluenced by the judgment in the higher path of cingulate cortex，temporal lobe，and prefrontal cortex,which indicates the attitude of praise or criticism. The higher pathway and the lower pathway form a dualcircuit, thus establishing the physiological basis of humor model.As for the function of appraisal, it deals with the resource, valance and intensity of affect. Affect canbe involved in modality, projection and concession. The classification of affect is un/happy, in/securityand dis/satisfaction. And affect can be scaled in low, medium and high degree. In an interaction, affect canbe initiated and expressed in direct ways as well as indirect forms. When affect is projected into the socialdomain, it is institutionalized as judgments regulated by the social rules or ethics, including social esteemand social sanction. In this way, affect and judgment co-orient to attitude, constituting a stance triangle inthe process of communication. The triangular is characterized in inter-subjectivity as can be illustratedwith the Stage Model.In the communicative triangular of two subjects and an event, it includes the positions of affectoriented to subjects and their evaluations of objects, as well as aligns between subjects achieved in theprocess of positions and evaluations. The different affect and evaluation between subjects lead to theunbalance with the unit. The unit regains balance after the hearer changes his/her cognition or affect, andthe speaker’s intention is recognized. The interchange of affect, the switch between a balanced andunbalanced unit are the necessary and sufficient conditions of humor.When the neuron dual pathway, the stance triangular, the Stage Model and the balance unit ofcognition and affect are integrated into the model of Conceptual Blending, together with the resources ofthe General Theory of Verbal Theory, an interactive model of cognition and affect of humor seems to beestablished in a dual pathway. It is characterized as a communicative model between the humorist and thereceiver, which is composed of the schema of a humorist and a receiver, a generic schema, a shared text and culture cntext. A prototyped schemata of the receiver will be initiated by the set-up part of the textproduced by the humorist, which tends to be incongruent with the punch-line harbored by the humorist,causing an unbalanced unit. The stress of “balance tendency” drives the receiver to retrieve certaincognitive mechanism to resolve the incongruity at the expense of the least effort, changing his/hercognition or affect accompanied by the social judgment. In this way, a balanced unit is regained. In theprocess, the vibration of affect will give rise to the sense of humor. At the same time, the intention ofcriticism, mockery or ridicule will be expressed through social judgment when the rules or regulations ofsocial esteem or social sanction are violated.In the parameters of the model, schema inference can unfold the process of humor meanings. Theschema consist of intention, cognition and affect, which are the simulation of the neuron structure andsocial events. Schema can account for the three functional meanings of the visual system and the verbalsystem. Also subject identification of the humorist, the receiver, the target will gear up to humor. Themode awareness, genre schema prediction, schema pairing, unbalanced of a unit, cognitive mechanismrecognition, balance restitution, affect switch and intention identification constitute a process inconstruing visual, verbal humors in variable forms such as cartoons, conversational humors or narrativestories, anecdotes, novels and comedy films.The geometrical model of a dual pathway, its parameters of knowledge and construal procedureconstitute an interactive model of affect and cognition in construing visual and verbal humors.