Effects of Valence and Emotional Intensity on the Comprehension and Memorization of Texts

Abstract

In the present study, we independently manipulated valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and emotional intensity (low, medium, or high), asking what impact they have on text comprehension (via surface, paraphrase, and inference questions) and memorization (via Remember/Know test) in adults. Results show that emotional contents, including valence and intensity affects comprehension. Emotional valence had a significant effect on text comprehension, with higher scores for positive and neutral texts than for negative ones. Participants scored higher on the surface questions for positive texts and on the inference questions for negative texts, with equivalent scores for paraphrase questions. Regarding emotional intensity, medium intensity generally fostered better comprehension of both positive and negative texts. High emotional intensity is beneficial for positively valenced texts, but hinders the understanding of negatively valenced ones. Regarding memorization, participants recalled more emotional words than neutral ones, and more words for positive texts than for either negative or neutral ones. In conclusion, our results show that emotions play an important role and improve the processing of information.

Emotions in Macroeconomic News and their Impact on the European Bond Market

“…While commonly used sentiment measures are generally built from a binary classification (negative versus positive words), emotion extraction points at recognising the multivariate emotional content expressed by the text. As also stated by several works within the psychological literature, the tone and intensity of emotional words affect the processing, comprehension and memorisation of information (Megalakaki et al (2019)). In this paper we argue that affective states such as distress, or fear, extracted from macroeconomic news may better capture, relative to simple univariate sentiment indicators used in previous studies, elements linked to human perception and mood that influence the behaviour and decision making of investors.…”

“…Emotions differ in whether they express a positive or negative overall tone, or valence, as well as on the intensity of the emotional response, also known as emotional arousal. From the literature in psychology, higher intensity messages affect the comprehension and memorization of the readers since they are often remembered better than neutral ones (see Megalakaki et al (2019) for a review). The WordNet-Affect emotion classification scheme is based on the Ekman (1993)'s List of Basic Emotions (i.e.…”

Emotional Nuance Enhances Verbatim Retention of Written Materials

“…In our study, valence was not treated as an independent variable. It is worth noting that there is an extensive literature that examines how valence, as one dimension of emotionality, differentially affects memory performance, using positive and negative items ( Lavoie and O’Connor, 2013 ; Hourihan et al, 2017 ; Bowen et al, 2018 ; Megalakaki et al, 2019 ). For instance, Bayer and Schacht (2014) compared the emotional effects of words, pictures, and facial expressions based on ratings and brain imaging data.…”

Extrapolating significance of text-based autonomous vehicle scenarios to multimedia scenarios and implications for user-centered design

“…A small to medium moderation effect of vividness in emotional induction for positive emotion and not for negative emotion was found in a meta-analysis of marketing persuasion literature [30]. This difference in valence can be explained by the cognitive elaboration hypothesis [31] together with negatively valenced information hampering cognitive processing [32]. When cognitive elaboration is high the impact of vividness is high and when cognitive elaboration is low the impact of vividness is non-significant.…”