How are affective word ratings related to lexicosemantic properties?:evidence from the Sussex Affective Word List

Emotional content of verbal material affects the speed of visual word recognition in various cognitive tasks, independently of lexicosemantic variables. However, little is known about how the dimensions of emotional arousal and valence interact with the lexicosemantic properties of words such as age of acquisition, familiarity, and imageability, that determine word recognition performance. This study aimed to examine these relationships using English ratings for affective and lexicosemantic features. Eighty-two native English speakers rated 300 words for emotional valence, arousal, familiarity, age of acquisition, and imageability. Although both dimensions of emotion were correlated with lexicosemantic variables, a unique emotion cluster produced the strongest quadratic relationship. This finding suggests that emotion should be included in models of word recognition as it is likely to make an independent contribution

Effects of valence and arousal on written word recognition:Time course and ERP correlates

Models of affect assume a two-dimensional framework, composed of emotional valence and arousal. Although neuroimaging evidence supports a neuro-functional distinction of their effects during single word processing, electrophysiological studies have not yet compared the effects of arousal within the same category of valence (positive and negative). Here we investigate effects of arousal and valence on written lexical decision. Amplitude differences between emotion and neutral words were seen in the early posterior negativity (EPN), the late positive complex and in a sustained slow positivity. In addition, trends towards interactive effects of valence and arousal were observed in the EPN, showing larger amplitude for positive, high-arousal and negative, low-arousal words. The results provide initial evidence for interactions between arousal and valence during processing of positive words and highlight the importance of both variables in studies of emotional stimulus processing. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Arousal and emotional valence interact in written word recognition

Behavioural, psychophysiological and neuroimaging studies reveal a prioritisation for emotional material in a variety of cognitive tasks. Although emotion is comprised of two dimensions (valence and arousal), previous research using verbal materials has mostly focused on valence, while controlling level of arousal. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of valence and arousal on lexical decision (LD) by manipulating both dimensions while controlling correlated psycholinguistic variables (e.g., word length, frequency, imageability). Results showed that valence and arousal affect word recognition in an interactive way: LD latencies are slower for positive high-arousal and negative low-arousal words compared to positive low-arousal and negative high-arousal words, in line with an approach-withdrawal tendency model. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) on the latencies revealed a unique contribution of a distinct cluster of emotion variables, independent of lexico-semantic variables, to explaining written word recognition. We conclude that the dimensions of valence and arousal both need to be taken into account in studies of emotion word processing as they have an interactive relationship

Adolescents’ risky decision-making activates neural networks related to social cognition and cognitive control processes

This study examines by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging the neural mechanisms underlying adolescents’ risk decision-making in social contexts. We hypothesize that the social context could engage brain regions associated with social cognition processes and developmental changes are also expected. Sixty participants (adolescents: 17–18, and young adults: 21–22 years old) read narratives describing typical situations of decision-making in the presence of peers. They were asked to make choices in risky situations (e.g., taking or refusing a drug) or ambiguous situations (e.g., eating a hamburger or a hotdog). Risky as compared to ambiguous scenarios activated bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG), right medial prefrontal cortex, and the precuneus bilaterally; i.e., brain regions related to social cognition processes, such as self-reflection and theory of mind (ToM). In addition, brain structures related to cognitive control were active [right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), bilateral orbitofrontal cortex], whereas no significant clusters were obtained in the reward system (ventral striatum). Choosing the dangerous option involved a further activation of control areas (ACC) and emotional and social cognition areas (temporal pole). Adolescents employed more neural resources than young adults in the right DLPFC and the right TPJ in risk situations. When choosing the dangerous option, young adults showed a further engagement in ToM related regions (bilateral MTG) and in motor control regions related to the planning of actions (pre-supplementary motor area). Finally, the right insula and the right superior temporal gyrus were more activated in women than in men, suggesting more emotional involvement and more intensive modeling of the others’ perspective in the risky conditions. These findings call for more comprehensive developmental accounts of decision-making in social contexts that incorporate the role of emotional and social cognition processes

The Roles of Implicit Causality and Discourse Context in Pronoun Resolution

Some interpersonal verbs show a bias in the proportion of times their subject and object arguments are rementioned in a sample of explanations for the eventuality the verb describes. This bias is known as the implicit causality bias. Several studies have shown that readers and listeners rapidly use the implicit causality bias during pronoun resolution. Whether listeners also rapidly incorporate relevant contextual information during pronoun resolution, is an open question. In the current paper, we report two visual world eye-tracking studies intended to answer this question. Participants listened to stories that included implicit causality verbs followed by a “because” clause with an ambiguous pronoun in its subject position. During the story, the participants looked at a screen on which potential referents of the ambiguous pronoun were displayed. In Experiment 1, a simple main effect of implicit causality bias on looks toward the character that was congruent with the bias was found among items in one of the two discourse conditions. Discourse context, however, only affected looks for a subset of verbs and in the opposite direction of what was hypothesized. In Experiment 2, no main effects of IC Bias or discourse context were found, but there was a marginally significant interaction which was not hypothesized. In both experiments, discourse context influenced looks only for a subset of verbs and never in the predicted direction. The results favor an account in which the influence of lexical semantics is, at least initially, stronger than the influence of world knowledge, and discourse context. Additional exploratory analyses suggested that eye movements already reveal remention biases at an early point in the sentence, whereas the causal potency of the subject argument is predicted by looks starting from the onset of the causal connective

Emotional valence and arousal affect reading in an interactive way: neuroimaging evidence for an approach-withdrawal framework

A growing body of literature shows that the emotional content of verbal material affects reading, wherein emotional words are given processing priority compared to neutral words. Human emotions can be conceptualised within a two-dimensional model comprised of emotional valence and arousal (intensity). These variables are at least in part distinct, but recent studies report interactive effects during implicit emotion processing and relate these to stimulus-evoked approach-withdrawal tendencies. The aim of the present study was to explore how valence and arousal interact at the neural level, during implicit emotion word processing. The emotional attributes of written word stimuli were orthogonally manipulated based on behavioural ratings from a corpus of emotion words. Stimuli were presented during an fMRI experiment while 16 participants performed a lexical decision task, which did not require explicit evaluation of a word's emotional content. Results showed greater neural activation within right insular cortex in response to stimuli evoking conflicting approach-withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive high-arousal and negative low-arousal words) compared to stimuli evoking congruent approach vs. withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive low-arousal and negative high-arousal words). Further, a significant cluster of activation in the left extra-striate cortex was found in response to emotional than neutral words, suggesting enhanced perceptual processing of emotionally salient stimuli. These findings support an interactive two-dimensional approach to the study of emotion word recognition and suggest that the integration of valence and arousal dimensions recruits a brain region associated with interoception, emotional awareness and sympathetic functions

Theory-of-Mind und Kommunikation: Zwei Seiten derselben medaille?

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The functional neuroanatomy of text comprehension: what's the story so far?

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Text comprehension in middle aged adults: Is there anything wrong?

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