Was this person being ironic? The role of emojis in irony comprehension and memory in computer-mediated communication: insights from the UK and China

• Examines how emojis influence irony comprehension and memory in computer-mediated communication. • Employs a three-phase recognition memory task with participants from the UK and China. • Finds irony is harder to comprehend but more memorable than literal statements. • Identifies culture-specific effects: smiling emojis aid Chinese participants, winking emojis aid UK participants. • Advances theoretical understanding of irony, memory, and multimodal digital communication. This study investigates how emojis shape the comprehension and memory of verbal irony in computer-mediated communication across UK and Chinese participants. Using a three-phase recognition memory task and a mixed factorial design, the research examines how literality, emoji type, and cultural background influence both real-time interpretative accuracy and later recognition. The findings show that irony is harder to comprehend but easier to remember than literal statements, and that culturally preferred emojis, smiling faces for Chinese readers and winking faces for UK readers, enhance both irony comprehension and mnemonic performance. These effects align with Echoic Mention Theory, Dual Coding Theory, and Levels-of-Processing accounts, suggesting that emojis operate as culturally grounded socio-pragmatic cues that deepen processing and enrich memory traces. Overall, the results highlight the multimodal and culturally sensitive nature of irony processing in computer-mediated communication.