Effects of Emotional Experience for Abstract Words in the Stroop Task

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of emotional experience, a relatively new dimension of emotional knowledge that gauges the ease with which words evoke emotional experience, on abstract word processing in the Stroop task. In order to test the context-dependency of these effects, we accentuated the saliency of this dimension in Experiment 1A by blocking the stimuli such that one block consisted of the stimuli with the highest emotional experience ratings and the other block consisted of the stimuli with the lowest emotional experience ratings. We attenuated the saliency of this dimension in Experiment 1B by intermixing the stimuli. We observed slower color naming performance for words with higher emotional experience ratings only in Experiment 1A, suggesting that the dimension of emotional experience is an aspect of semantic representation for abstract words but that its influence can be modulated by context. We interpret these results more generally using Vigliocco, Meteyard, Andrews, and Kousta's (2009) framework of semantic representation, and more specifically using Cohen, Dunbar, and McClelland's (1990) model of Stroop task performance.

N450 and LPC Event-Related Potential Correlates of an Emotional Stroop Task with Words Differing in Valence and Emotional Origin

“…The EST appeared to be a useful tool to detect the source of anxiety, because longer reaction times were observed for words connected in meaning with a particular source of threats. Subsequently, it was reported that EST slowdown could be observed in a normal population with no trauma experience (Nigg, 2000; Larsen et al, 2006; Siakaluk et al, 2014). Valence was shown to influence reaction latencies in cases of words with negative valence (e.g., Williams et al, 1996; McKenna and Sharma, 2004) and also with positive valence (e.g., Pratto and John, 1991; Richards et al, 1992; McKenna and Sharma, 1995).…”

Three symbol ungrounding problems: Abstract concepts and the future of embodied cognition

“…Emotional experience facilitated the processing of abstract words but inhibited the processing of concrete words, whereas context availability facilitated both. One of the important features of the semantic-richness research is that the effects associated with different dimensions are often task-dependent Moffat et al, 2015;Siakaluk, Knol, & Pexman, 2014;Zdrazilova & Pexman, 2013). Troche, Crutch, and Reilly (2014) have offered a different defense of a multidimensional approach to abstract concepts.…”

Acquisition of abstract concepts is influenced by emotional valence

“…Because abstract words tend to be emotionally valenced, once all other factors that favour concrete words (such as familiarity and imageability) are controlled, they are processed faster than concrete words (Kousta et al, 2011). Emotional information has also been shown to facilitate processing of abstract words (but not concrete) in naming (Moffat, Siakaluk, Sidhu, & Pexman, 2015) and in semantic categorization tasks (Moffat et al, 2015;Newcombe, Campbell, Siakaluk, & Pexman, 2012), and to interfere with colour naming in the Stroop task (Siakaluk, Knol, & Pexman, 2014). To complement these behavioural findings, employed an fMRI study in which subjects performed lexical decisions for concrete and abstract words, again critically controlling for lexical factors such as imageability and familiarity not controlled in other studies.…”