{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T09:26:54Z","timestamp":1783416414712,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782950400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003397","name":"Universities HUST","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2024WKYXQN065"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024WKYXQN065"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003397","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigated how children aged 7 to 11 years process and comprehend written irony with different emotional valences (ironic praise vs. ironic criticism) using eye-tracking technology. Participants read short stories containing literal praise, literal criticism, ironic praise, or ironic criticism while their eye movements were recorded. Results indicated that children showed significantly lower comprehension accuracy for ironic praise compared to ironic criticism, supporting the affective asymmetry hypothesis in irony processing. Eye-tracking data provided partial support for this asymmetry: regression-path durations\u2014but not first-pass or total reading times\u2014were longer for ironic utterances, particularly ironic praise, indicating greater effort during integrative rereading and reanalysis. Age-related differences were limited to regression-path duration rather than comprehension accuracy, suggesting selective developmental differences in online integration. These findings provide process-level evidence for children\u2019s written irony comprehension and highlight the role of online integrative processes in figurative language processing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16071101","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T15:52:24Z","timestamp":1783007544000},"page":"1101","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Children\u2019s Processing of Written Ironic Praise and Ironic Criticism: Evidence from Eye-Tracking Analyses"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3641-944X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiayi","family":"Zhong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Foreign Languages, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Junsheng","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"749","DOI":"10.1002\/aur.1490","article-title":"Processing of written irony in autism spectrum disorder: An eye-movement study","volume":"8","author":"Kaakinen","year":"2015","journal-title":"Autism Research"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106202","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jecp.2025.106202","article-title":"Children\u2019s processing of irony during reading in English: An eye-tracking study","volume":"254","author":"Barich","year":"2025","journal-title":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"323","DOI":"10.1037\/1089-2680.5.4.323","article-title":"Bad is stronger than good","volume":"5","author":"Baumeister","year":"2001","journal-title":"Review of General Psychology"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02294361","article-title":"Model selection and Akaike\u2019s information criterion (AIC): The general theory and its analytical extensions","volume":"52","author":"Bozdogan","year":"1987","journal-title":"Psychometrika"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2148","DOI":"10.1017\/langcog.2024.53","article-title":"Uncovering echoic mechanisms in verbal irony comprehension","volume":"16","author":"Cao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Language and Cognition"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"257","DOI":"10.1080\/15248370802247939","article-title":"Eye gaze provides a window on children\u2019s understanding of verbal irony","volume":"9","author":"Climie","year":"2008","journal-title":"Journal of Cognition and Development"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cohen, J. 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