The Affective Auditory Verbal Learning Test: Peripheral Arousal Correlates

Abstract

The present study assessed the usefulness of the affective list alternatives to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVL) in the induction of physiological arousal. It was anticipated that affective verbal learning would lead to arousal patterns characteristic of different emotions (Izard, 1977), with significant increases in blood pressure following negative list learning and significant decreases following positive list learning. Since diastolic blood pressure increased significantly following the learning of negatively valanced words and decreased significantly following the learning of positively valanced words, this was supported. Given the abundance of research on lateral asymmetries in emotional and verbal processing, the affective list alternatives to the RAVL may provide an objective means for evaluating individual differences in affective verbal learning as well as the induction of emotion. The Affective Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AAVL) may potentially provide a tool for assessment of cerebral dysfunction in the clinic or in the assessment of affective disorders.

Cerebral Laterality, Emotion, and Cardiopulmonary Functions: An Investigation of Left and Right Cva Patients

“…Overall these results are consistent with previous experiments in healthy individuals (Demaree & Everhart, 2004;Demaree, Shenal, Everhart & Robinson, 2004;Everhart, Carpenter, Carmona, Ethridge, & Demaree, 2003;Snyder & Harrison, 1997, Snyder, Harrison, & Shenal, 1998 suggesting that CVA did not negate the effects of affect on processing verbal information.…”

Low alpha power (7.5-9.5 Hz) changes during positive and negative affective learning

“…Three major findings are reported from this study. First, with regard to acquisition patterns, the results of the present study are commensurate with previous findings (Snyder & Harrison, 1997;Snyder et al, 1998). Specifically, the participants who were asked to learn a negative word list demonstrated a relatively greater primacy effect, in comparison with the participants who were asked to learn a positive word list.…”

“…In a replication of the experiment described above, Snyder, Harrison, and Shenal (1998) found increased diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure following negative list learning and decreased diastolic blood pressure and heart rate following positive list learning. Also of note, the primacy and recency patterns found by Snyder and Harrison (1997) were replicated.…”

“…A total of 2,854 words were evaluated by 2,500 undergraduates at the University of Colorado, using a 7-point Likert scale for concreteness, imagery, categorizability, meaningfulness, familiarity (FAM), number of attributes, and pleasantness (PLS). Construction of the affective lists of the AAVL test consisted of selecting 15 words having the highest mean PLS rating and 15 words having the lowest mean PLS rating from the subset of all words with a FAM rating of at least 5.0 or greater (see Snyder & Harrison, 1997;Snyder et al, 1998). The original RAVL list can also be referred to as a neutral list, since the PLS ratings (M = 4.38, SD = 1.26) for 11 of these words (4 words were not in the index) were near the middle (4.0 rating) of the 7-point Likert scale for PLS.…”

“…If the AAVL is associated with mood induction, then (1) right frontal activation (F4, F8) would be expected following presentation of negative words, whereas (2) left frontal activation (F3, F7) would be expected following presentation of positive words. One shortcoming found in the previous studies (Snyder & Harrison, 1997;Snyder et al, 1998) was the absence of self-reported changes in mood following presentation of the AAVL, due to the lack of a manipulation check. In the present study, participants were asked to rate mood state, using a Likert scale before and after presentation of AAVL stimuli.…”