Center for Research in Health Technologies and Information Systems (CINTESIS-UAlg), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Departamento de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Mar;223:103484. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103484. Epub 2022 Jan 3.
Effects of emotional valence have been observed in lexical decision tasks, suggesting that valence information modulates early word recognition. However, is still unclear the processing advantage of the different valence categories, and how these advantages might be modulated by word frequency and arousal. To clarify this question, a lexical decision task was designed using emotional words as stimuli. Emotional words were divided into three categories: 60 positive, 60 negative, and 60 neutral words. Word frequency was manipulated into low and high conditions and arousal was controlled among experimental conditions (word valence and frequency). In the first experiment, 54 participants performed the task with a maximum stimuli exposure time of 2000 ms. In a follow-up experiment, 42 participants performed the same task with two shorter fixed time exposures (150 ms and 300 ms). The results were similar between experiments: positive words were recognized faster and negative words were recognized slower than neutral ones. Furthermore, this valence effect was modulated by word frequency, affecting only words that take longer to be recognized (low-frequency words). However, the valence by frequency interaction was attenuated for high-arousal words when the pressure to respond was high (short exposure time - 150 ms). Overall, the results confirm that the emotional status of a word can affect word processing at early stages when automatic processes are taking place.
情绪效价在词汇判断任务中得到了观察，表明效价信息调节了早期的单词识别。然而，不同效价类别的加工优势仍不清楚，以及这些优势如何受到词频和唤醒度的调节。为了阐明这个问题，设计了一个使用情感词作为刺激的词汇判断任务。将情感词分为三个类别：60 个积极的、60 个消极的和 60 个中性的词。词频被操纵为高低两种条件，唤醒度在实验条件之间得到控制（词的效价和频率）。在第一个实验中，54 名参与者在最大刺激暴露时间为 2000 毫秒的情况下完成了任务。在后续实验中，42 名参与者在两个更短的固定时间暴露（150 毫秒和 300 毫秒）下完成了相同的任务。实验结果相似：积极的词比中性词识别更快，消极的词比中性词识别更慢。此外，这种效价效应受到词频的调节，只影响需要更长时间识别的词（低频词）。然而，当反应压力较高（短暴露时间-150 毫秒）时，高唤醒度的词的效价-频率交互作用会减弱。总的来说，结果证实了一个词的情绪状态可以在自动加工发生时影响早期的单词处理。
