crucify betray industry owl avenue festive astonished cheerblackmail hostage bus history stove hard intercourse brave

trauma sinful bees drown stomach wine alert passion casinocockroach insult passage column aloof dollar Christmas sexy

slaughter confused privacy yellow exercise couple admiredshark surgery rejected skull errand umbrella happy life partyenraged disgust cancer rape fork manner win promotion lovepressure war anger elbow barrel progress desire car intimateaccident fire killer salad slush curtains nude fireworks eroticevil pain controlling radiator kettle miracle treasure inspired

weapon divorce panic bland violin joke valentine reunionassault surgery tumour alley sentiment aroused ecstasy glorymutilate hurricane thief elevator prairie rescue laughter flirt

GlasgowGlasgowLanguageLanguageProcessingProcessing

Emotion Word Processing: Evidence From Eye Emotion Word Processing: Evidence From Eye MovementsMovements

Graham G. Scott, Patrick J. O’Donnell, & Sara C. Sereno

University of Glasgow

IntroductionOnly 2 studies thus far have investigated the interaction of the emotionality and frequency of a word:

• Nakic, et al (2006) carried out an LDT using a 2x3 design which compared frequency (high and low) and word type (‘high’ negative, ‘low’ negative, and neutral). Main effects of frequency and emotion were observed, but there was no interaction.

• Highly negative words were responded to fastest, then low negative words, then neutral words.

• Scott et al (2006) carried out an LDT using a 3x2 design to investigate emotion (positive, negative, neutral) and frequency (high, low) and found an interaction:

There were significant frequency effects within each word type. Within LF words, positive and negative words were responded to faster than neutral words. Within HF words, positive words were responded to faster than negative or neutral words.

The Present Study

Aims to reproduce the pattern of results of Scott et al (2006) in a naturalistc reading context by placing high and low frequency positive, negative and neutral words into neutral sentences and measuring eye-movements.

RT: Frequency x Word Type

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MethodParticipants

59 native English speakers with normal vision who were not diagnosed as dyslexic.

Apparatus

Fourward Technologies Generation 5.5 dual-Purkinje eyetracker.

Procedure

Participants read short passages of text (comprising 2 sentences) while their eye movements were monitored. Y/N comprehension questions were presented on half the trials.

Materials and Design

Method (cont.)Materials and Design

• 2 x 3 within-subject design: Frequency (LF,HF) x Word Type (Pos, Neut, Neg). Word type was defined by valence and arousal ratings:

• Positive: high arousal, high valence, e.g., riches, honest.

• Neutral: low arousal, medium valence, e.g., violin, modest.

• Negative: high arousal, low valence, e.g., tumour, violent.

•Frequency values were obtained from the British National Corpus. Emotional arousal and valence ratings were taken from Affective Norms of English Words (ANEW) database (Bradley & Lang, 1999).

• 15 words of each type (90 total), matched for frequency, length, no. of syllables, and word type.

• 30 sentence tripples and words tripples. Subjects split into 3 groups, each subject saw each target word in only one sentence.

Words: Kiss News Bomb

Sentence 1: Phoebe discussed the _____ at great length with her friends.

Sentence 2: Michelle dreamt about the _____ every night for weeks.

Sentence 3: Tom delivered the _____ with great care and attention.

Results

References and AcknowledgementsBradley, M.M., & Lang, P.J. (1999). Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW). The NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.British National Corpus (1995). http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk.Nakic (2006) The impact of affect and frequency on lexical decision: The role of the amygdala and inferior frontal cortex. Neuroimage, 31(4), 1752-1761.Scott, G.G.; O’Donnell, P.J., Leuthold, H.; and Sereno, S.C. (2006) Emotion word processing: behavioural and electrophysiological evidence, poster presented at AmLAP 2006, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Taylor, S.E. (1991). Asymmetrical effects of positive and negative events: The mobilization-minimization hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 67-85.Taylor, J.G., & Fragopanagos, N.F. (2005). The interaction of attention and emotion. Neural Networks, 18, 353-369.

This work was conducted as partial fulfilment of a PhD at the Univ of Glasgow for G.G. Scott, funded by an ESRC postgraduate fellowship. Corresponding author: g.scott@psy.gla.ac.uk.

Discussion

• Significant Frequency x Word Type interactions occurred in first fixation, single fixation, and gaze duration measures.

• Results seem to favour a perceptual defence based theory, such as Taylor’s (1991) Mobilisation-Minimisation hypothesis:

- For LF words, high arousal words (both positive and negative) are processed more easily than neutral words.- For HF positive words, high arousal levels facilitate processing without any cost incurred from their highly activated (HF) positive valence.- For HF negative words, initial processing facilitation is offset by the disruptive effects of highly activated (HF) negative valence.

• These data suggest that an early identification of the emotional tone of words leads to differential processing. Specifically, HF negative words seem to attract additional cognitive resources.

• This is consistent with a time-line in which emotional quality either accompanies or precedes (but does not follow) lexical access (Taylor & Fragopanogos, 2005).

More stuff

Gaze Duration

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Results (cont.)

First Fixation Duration

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crucify betray industry owl avenue festive astonished cheerblackmail hostage bus history stove hard intercourse brave

trauma sinful bees drown stomach wine alert passion casinocockroach insult passage column aloof dollar christmas sexyslaughter confused privacy yellow exercise couple admired

shark surgery rejected skull errand umbrella happy life partyenraged disgust cancer rape fork manner win promotion lovepressure war anger elbow barrel progress desire car intimateaccident fire killer salad slush curtains nude fireworks eroticevil pain controlling radiator kettle miracle treasure inspired

weapon divorce panic bland violin joke valentine reunionassault surgery tumour alley sentiment aroused ecstasy glorymutilate hurricane thief elevator prairie rescue laughter flirt

blackmail rude limber locker dazzle rollercoaster athleticsdespise demon toxic hydrant mantel thrill infatuation heart

Emotion Word Processing: Evidence From Emotion Word Processing: Evidence From Eye MovementsEye Movements

Graham G. Scott, Patrick J. O’Donnell, & Sara C. SerenoUniversity of Glasgow

GlasgowGlasgowLanguageLanguageProcessingProcessing