Nasrallah Maha, Carmel David, Lavie Nilli
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
Emotion. 2009 Oct;9(5):609-18. doi: 10.1037/a0016305.
Enhanced sensitivity to information of negative (compared to positive) valence has an adaptive value, for example, by expediting the correct choice of avoidance behavior. However, previous evidence for such enhanced sensitivity has been inconclusive. Here we report a clear advantage for negative over positive words in categorizing them as emotional. In 3 experiments, participants classified briefly presented (33 ms or 22 ms) masked words as emotional or neutral. Categorization accuracy and valence-detection sensitivity were both higher for negative than for positive words. The results were not due to differences between emotion categories in either lexical frequency, extremeness of valence ratings, or arousal. These results conclusively establish enhanced sensitivity for negative over positive words, supporting the hypothesis that negative stimuli enjoy preferential access to perceptual processing.
相较于积极效价信息，对消极效价信息的敏感性增强具有适应性价值，例如，它能加速正确选择回避行为。然而，此前关于这种增强敏感性的证据尚无定论。在此，我们报告了消极词汇相较于积极词汇在将其归类为情感性词汇方面具有明显优势。在3项实验中，参与者将短暂呈现（33毫秒或22毫秒）的掩蔽词汇归类为情感性或中性。消极词汇的分类准确率和效价检测敏感性均高于积极词汇。这些结果并非源于情感类别在词汇频率、效价值评级的极端程度或唤醒水平方面的差异。这些结果确凿地证实了消极词汇相较于积极词汇的敏感性增强，支持了消极刺激在知觉加工中享有优先处理权的假设。
