Description:
The researchers studied humour among Chinese and Greek preschool children in relation to cognitive development. The sample included 55 Chinese children and 50 Greek children ages 4½ to 5½ years. Results showed that both Chinese and Greek children‘s humour recognition were significantly and positively correlated to their cognitive development, but there was a different correlation pattern between humour response levels and cognitive development. Chinese children‘s level of humour responses was negatively and moderately correlated to their level of cognitive development in contrast to the positive correlation between these two variables among the Greek children. It would appear that cultural factors play a strong role in determining the correlation between humour response and cognitive development among young children.