TITLE:
Emotional connotations affect preconscious processing for abstract, but not concrete words.
SUBMISSION TYPE: EITHER
ABSTRACT:
Only recently have words’ emotional connotations been taken into account in studies of lexical
processing. A recent proposal suggests that emotion is crucially related to abstract words as the
ontological distinction between concrete and abstract concepts reflects the distinction between concepts
primarily grounded in our sensory-motor experience (concrete) and those grounded in our internal
affective states (abstract), thus suggesting a tighter link between abstract words and emotions (e.g.
Kousta et al., 2011). We assessed whether affective associations have differential effects for
preconscious processing of abstract and concrete words. By using continuous flash suppression (a
variant of binocular rivalry: Tsuchiya & Koch, 2005) to make stimuli invisible, we measured how long
it takes for a suppressed word to emerge to consciousness. Subjects responded as soon as becoming
aware of the test stimulus by pressing a key to indicate whether the stimulus appeared above or below a
fixation point, a task that is not dependent upon comprehending the words.
In Experiment 1 we manipulated emotional valence, comparing negative words (e.g. HURT) to
positive (e.g. LOVE) and neutral (e.g. PART), strictly matched for concreteness along with numerous
other lexical and sublexical variables. Responses to negative words were significantly slower than RTs
for positive and neutral words, suggesting that negative words were slower in emerging to
consciousness presumably because they elicit a “freeze” response. In Experiments 2 and 3, we
factorially manipulated concreteness and valence (e.g. negative abstract: SORROW; negative concrete:
POISON; neutral abstract: TRANCE; neutral concrete: CEMENT), finding that negative abstract
words were slower to emerge from suppression than neutral abstract words, whereas there was no
difference between negative and neutral concrete words. These results suggest that emotional
connotations play a pivotal role for preconscious processing of abstract, but not concrete, words.
Moreover, this evidence extends previous results on preconscious processing of emotional stimuli, such
as faces, suggesting that similar mechanisms may account for processing of emotional content of
abstract words. These findings are consistent with a view in which abstract concepts are internally
grounded via emotional experience, in a manner similar to the external grounding of concrete concepts
in sensory-motor experience.
REFERENCES:
Kousta ST, Vigliocco G, Vinson D, Andrews M & Del Campo E (2011). The representation of abstract
words: why emotion matters. J Exp Psychol Gen 140, 14-34.
Tsuchiya N & Koch C (2005) Continuous flash suppression reduces negative afterimages. Nat
Neurosci 8, 1096-1101.