Emotional Stroop task: effect of word arousal and subject anxiety on emotional interference

Abstract

Inconsistent Wndings regarding the emotional Stroop eVect in healthy subjects may be explained by confounding eVects of stimulus valence and arousal, as well as individual diVerences in anxiety. We examined reaction time data in a healthy sample using the emotional Stroop task while carefully matching arousal level of positive and negative words. Independent of valence, emotional relative to neutral words elicited emotional interference, indicating that arousal determines emotional interference. Independent of valence, emotional words were better re-called and recognized than neutral words. Individual diVerences in state anxiety were associated with emotional interference, that is, emotional interference was enhanced in subjects with high state anxiety. There was no inXuence of trait anxiety. These Wndings indicate that word arousal produces emotional interference independent of valence. State anxiety exacerbates interference of emotional words by further biasing attention towards emotionally salient stimuli.

The adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for European Portuguese

“…Emotional words seem to more readily attract attention and cause more interference during ongoing tasks, as compared with neutral ones (e.g., Anderson, 2005;Dresler, Mériau, Heekeren, & van der Meer, 2009;Pratto & John, 1991). However, they are more easily remembered and recognized in both immediate (e.g., Hadley & MacKay, 2006;Monnier & Syssau, 2008) and delayed (e.g., Doerksen & Shimamura, 2001;Ferré, 2003) memory tests.…”

“…The assessment of each word in each of these three affective dimensions by using the SAM scale is particularly relevant since recent studies have suggested that affective representations of words' intensity (arousal) and their affective content (valence) may rely on distinct cognitive, temporal, and spatial neural substrates (e.g., Dresler et al, 2009;Hinojosa, Carretié, Méndez-Bértolo, Míguez, & Pozo, 2009;Kensinger & Schacter, 2006;Lewis et al, 2007;Mickley & Kensinger, 2008). In particular, valence seems to affect early stages of affective processing (e.g., Kissler et al 2009;Scott et al, 2009;see, however, Hofmann et al, 2009, for early effects of arousal) and to activate neural circuits that are distinct from those associated with arousal: For example, the prefrontal cortex tends to respond to emotional stimuli mainly in a valence-based manner, whereas the amygdala tends to respond in a arousal-based manner (e.g., Kensinger & Schacter, 2006;Lewis et al, 2007;Posner et al, 2009).…”

“…However, as Schimmack (2005) pointed out, it is unclear whether valence or arousal of the emotional stimuli explains that effect, since negative words tend to show higher levels of arousal when compared with positive words. Indeed, a recent study by Dresler et al (2009), using positive and negative words matched for arousal, showed that, irrespective of valence, emotional words elicited emotional interference (i.e., both highly positive and negative arousing words produced longer response latencies, relative to neutral words).…”

Discrete emotion norms for nouns: Berlin affective word list (DENN–BAWL)

“…Prominent examples are the emotional Stroop (Dresler, Mériau, Heekeren, & van der Meer, 2009;Phaf & Kan, 2007;Thomas, Johnstone, & Gonsalvez, 2007), the recognition memory test (Grider & Malmberg, 2008;Võ et al, 2008;Zimmermann & Kelley, 2010), the lexical decision task (LDT, Kuchinke, Võ, Hofmann, & Jacobs, 2007;Schacht & Sommer, 2009;Scott, O'Donnell, Leuthold, & Sereno, 2009), naming (Estes & Adelman, 2008;Simpson, Snyder, Gusnard, & Raichle, 2001), verb generation (e.g., Simpson et al, 2001), or word-stem completion (Danion, Kauffmann-Muller, Grangé, Zimmermann, & Greth, 1995). However, because numerous variables are known to influence visual word processing (Graf, Nagler, & Jacobs, 2005), well-controlled and reliable emotion-inducing stimulus material is necessary in order to produce interpretable effects.…”

Minho Affective Sentences (MAS): Probing the roles of sex, mood, and empathy in affective ratings of verbal stimuli

“…This approach may be better suited to characterize stimuli for which it is difficult to attribute a primary emotional category (Kanske & Kotz, 2011). Recent studies also suggest that the representations of different affective dimensions rely on distinct cognitive and neural substrates (e.g., Dresler, Mériau, Heekeren, & van der Meer, 2009). For example, whereas the amygdala tends to respond more intensely as a function of stimulus arousal, the prefrontal cortex seems to be more sensitive to the valence of the stimulus (e.g., Kensinger & Schacter, 2006;Lewis, Critchley, Rotshtein, & Dolan, 2007;Posner et al, 2009).…”