Gorbacheva A.V., Berlin Khenis A.A., Puchkova A.N., Osadchiy M.A. Experimental Study of Demotivators and Memes Perception Complexity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2021.2.7

Aleksandra V. Gorbacheva

Researcher, Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Akademika Volgina St, 6, 117485 Moscow, Russia

avgorbacheva@pushkin.institute

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8902-3870

Alexandrа A. Berlin Khenis

Specialist, Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Akademika Volgina St, 6, 117485 Moscow, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2034-1526

Alexandra N. Puchkova

Candidate of Sciences (Biology), Leading Researcher, Laboratory of Language and Cognition, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Akademika Volgina St, 6, 117485 Moscow, Russia

Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Neurobiology of Sleep and Wake, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Butlerova St, 5a, 117485 Moscow, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2292-6475

Mikhail A. Osadchiy

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Vice-Rector for Science, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Akademika Volgina St, 6, 117485 Moscow, Russia

maosadchiy@pushkin.institute

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7964-9029

Abstract. The article presents the results of a pilot study of the perception of the demotivator and meme genres. It was a part of an experimental study of psychophysiological and psycholinguistic features of perception and understanding of multimodal extremist texts. The aim of the study is to develop and test the hypothesis about the influence of genre on perception of multimodal texts. To test the hypothesis, we analyze the respondents' eye movement data from the main experimental study (n = 60; 31 forensic linguists with anti-extremism practice, 29 non-experts). Research methods were eye-tracking and quantitative data processing. The following statistically reliable data were obtained: compared to memes, respondents looked at demotivators (1) for a longer time, made (2) shorter fixations, (3) with more of them, and also made (4) faster and (5) shorter saccades. These parameters may indicate a denser scanning pattern of viewing demotivators compared to memes and greater cognitive expenditure in assessing the semantic content of demotivator texts. The results of the study suggest a connection between genre and the degree of multimodal texts perception complexity. This provides an opportunity for further research in this direction and, in the future, will enable the development of norms of cognitive load of judicial linguists who analyse multimodal extremist texts.

Key words: multimodal text, creolized text, meme, demotivator, Internet genre, eye-tracking, perception.

Citation. Gorbacheva A.V., Berlin Khenis A.A., Puchkova A.N., Osadchiy M.A. Experimental Study of Demotivators and Memes Perception Complexity. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2021, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 74-86. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2021.2.7

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