Attention and the processing of emotional words: Dissociating effects of arousal

Aquino, Jennifer M.; Arnell, Karen M.

doi:10.3758/bf03194084

Cited by 54 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…First of all, it is important to note that this finding is consistent with several other studies that have found that explicit sex words (Aquino & Arnell, 2007;Arnell, Killman, & Fijavz, 2007) and sexual images (Buodo, Sarlo, & Palomba, 2002) affect attention more strongly than threat stimuli. Nevertheless, other possible reasons may be sought in the specific qualities of our stimulus set.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Associating LIPS and SWOLLEN: delayed attentional disengagement following words in sex contexts

Oosterwijk

Leij

Rotteveel

2016

Cognition and Emotion

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Associating LIPS and SWOLLEN: delayed attentional disengagement following words in sex contexts Oosterwijk, S.; van der Leij, A.R.; Rotteveel, M. General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. With a series of three studies, using an adapted dot-probe paradigm, we investigated the elicitation of spontaneous affective meaning. Although it is well established that humans show delays in disengaging their attention from conventional affective stimuli, it is unknown whether contextually acquired affective meaning similarly impacts attention. We examined attentional disengagement following pairs of neutral or slightly ambiguous words that in combination could evoke sex, violence or neutral associations. Study 1 demonstrated slower disengagement following words that conveyed sex or violence associations compared to words that conveyed neutral associations. This pattern was only present for participants who were aware of sex or violence associations. Study 2 replicated these results in a large sample, but only for sex associations. Study 3 replicated the effect while instructing participants explicitly to expect sex and violence associations. Finally, two control studies countered reasonable alternative explanations for our findings. Together, these studies show that contextually driven affective associations can arise quickly with the potential to influence attentional processes. These findings are consistent with theoretical models of emotion and language that highlight the importance of context in the generation of affective meaning. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Associating LIPS and SWOLLEN: delayed attentional disengagement following words in sex contexts

Oosterwijk

Leij

Rotteveel

2016

Cognition and Emotion

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“…Resultados similares se han encontrado en mujeres en comparación a los hombres (Fraga et al, 2011), lo que es coherente con los datos de nuestra investigación en donde las mujeres evaluaron como más aversivas las palabras desagradables, este mismo resultado se ha encontrado utilizando imágenes del iaPs (Bradley, Codispoti, Sabatinelli, & Lang, 2001;Gantiva et al, 2011;Vila et al, 2001), lo cual confirma el sesgo negativo de las mujeres hacia estímulos que indican amenaza. Por el contrario, todos los estudios muestran que las palabras con contenido sexual generan altas puntuaciones en valencia y arousal independiente de las características de la muestra (Aquino & Arnell, 2007;Arnell et al, 2007;Fraga et al, 2011;Harris & Pashler, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Características de la respuesta emocional generada por las palabras: un estudio experimental desde la emoción y la motivación

Gantiva¹,

Camacho²

2016

Psychol.

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ResumenLos estudios experimentales de la emoción y la motivación se han desarrollado de forma más frecuente con imágenes, sonidos y videos, sin embargo, son pocos los trabajos que han estudiado la respuesta emocional y motivacional ante las palabras, las cuales son estímulos que guían significativamente nuestra interacción social. Por lo anterior, el objetivo de la presente investigación fue identificar la capacidad que tienen las palabras para generar estados emocionales y las posibles diferencias entre hombres y mujeres. Para esto se llevó a cabo un estudio con 232 personas y se utilizaron 15 palabras con contenido afectivo, las cuales fueron evaluadas en las dimensiones de valencia, arousal y dominancia. Los resultados muestran que las palabras agradables, en especial aquellas con contenido sexual generan una valencia apetitiva, alto arousal y alta dominancia, y las palabras desagradables generan una valencia aversiva, bajo arousal y baja dominancia. Solo se encontraron diferencias significativas entre hombres y mujeres en la valencia de las palabras desagradables y el arousal de las palabras agradables. Palabras clave: Emoción; motivación; lenguaje; palabras; valencia; arousal AbstractThe experimental studies of emotion and motivation have developed more often with pictures, sounds and videos; however, few studies have addressed the emotional and motivational response to the words, which are stimuli that guide significantly our social interaction. Therefore, the objective of this research was to identify the words capacity to generate emotional states and differences between men and women. For this we conducted a study with 232 persons and used 15 words with affective content which were evaluated in the dimensions of valence, arousal and dominance. The results show that pleasant words, especially those with sexual content generate an appetitive valence, high arousal and high dominance, and unpleasant words generate an aversive valence, low arousal and low dominance. Significant differences between men and women only found in valence of unpleasant words and in arousal of the pleasant words.

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“…We chose negative and positive words because the neural EEM in the amygdala is primarily driven by emotional arousal rather than valence (Kensinger and Schacter 2006). Sexual, threatening, and taboo words were not included, as it has been suggested that such stimuli might be preferentially processed (MacKay et al 2004;Aquino and Arnell 2007).The whole experiment consisted of three sessions, each with an encoding and a retrieval phase, which were scanned consecutively, but separated by a short break (due to space limitations the retrieval data will not be reported). To control for the relative distinctiveness of emotional items, the words from six lists (two Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press on May 12, 2018 -Published by learnmem.cshlp.org Downloaded from from each valence level) were presented during an encoding phase in a pure list design, i.e., all 12 words of the particular list were presented one after another for 3 sec each.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

Sommer¹,

Gläscher²,

Moritz³

et al. 2008

Learn. Mem.

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According to the modulation hypothesis, arousal is the crucial factor in the emotional enhancement of memory (EEM). However, the multifactor theory of the EEM recently proposed that cognitive characteristics of emotional stimuli, e.g., relatedness and distinctiveness, also play an important role. The current study aimed to investigate the individual contribution of arousal to the neural correlates of the EEM by controlling for these additional cognitive factors. We observed the characteristic neuronal correlates of the EEM, in particular enhanced activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, which provides evidence for an arousal-driven EEM in the amygdala as proposed by the modulation hypothesis.Emotionally arousing events are usually better remembered than neutral ones (emotional enhancement of memory [EEM]). The modulation hypothesis of the EEM proposes that the basolateral amygdala enhances hippocampal consolidation of arousing stimuli via noradrenergic projections (Cahill and McGaugh 1998;McGaugh 2004). Consistent with the time scale of consolidation, the EEM is observed to be more pronounced and consistent after longer retention intervals (Kleinsmith and Kaplan 1963;Sharot and Yonelinas 2008). However, arousing items are often better remembered immediately after encoding as well, which cannot be explained by more efficient consolidation (Talmi et al. 2008).Therefore, it was recently proposed that the EEM is additionally driven by memory enhancing cognitive characteristics of emotional stimuli, i.e., their distinctiveness, semantic relatedness, and deployment of selective attention. As predicted by this hypothesis, the immediate EEM is substantially reduced when the relative distinctiveness of emotional stimuli in a neutral context is removed by presenting pure lists of emotional and neutral items (Schmidt and Saari 2007;Talmi et al. 2007a). In addition, matching the semantic relatedness of the emotional and neutral stimuli by using categorized neutral items diminishes the immediate EEM (Manning and Julian 1975;Dewhurst and Parry 2000;Talmi and Moscovitch 2004;Buchanan et al. 2006;Talmi et al. 2007a). Importantly, controlling for both factors by using pure lists of categorized items eliminates the immediate behavioral EEM (Talmi et al. 2007a). On the other hand, a purely arousal-driven long term EEM could be observed after a 1 wk retention interval (Anderson et al. 2006). Finally, enhanced selective attention for emotionally arousing stimuli seems to play a more complex but less substantial role that may be valence specific (Kensinger and Corkin 2004;Sharot and Phelps 2004;Kern et al. 2005;Talmi et al. 2007b). The derived multifactorial theory of the EEM proposes that, on the one hand, emotional arousal directly modulates amygdala-driven consolidation but, on the other hand, enhances encoding mediated by the aforementioned cognitive factors (Talmi et al. 2007b).The neural correlates of the EEM are commonly explored by contrasting brain activity during the successful encoding of arousing versus neutral stimuli (...

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Attention and the processing of emotional words: Dissociating effects of arousal

Cited by 54 publications

References 11 publications

Associating LIPS and SWOLLEN: delayed attentional disengagement following words in sex contexts

Associating LIPS and SWOLLEN: delayed attentional disengagement following words in sex contexts

Características de la respuesta emocional generada por las palabras: un estudio experimental desde la emoción y la motivación

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: Removing the influence of cognitive factors

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