The dynamic influence of emotional words on sentence comprehension: An ERP study

Abstract

In the present study, we explored the influence of emotional words on the semantic integration of their following neutral nouns during sentence comprehension. We manipulated the emotionality of verbs and the semantic congruity of their following (neutral) object nouns in sentences. Eventrelated potentials were recorded to the verbs, which were either negative or neutral, and to the object nouns, which were either semantically congruent or incongruent relative to the preceding contexts. We found an N400 and a P600 effect in response to the semantic congruity of the nouns when they followed the neutral verbs. However, the P600 (but not the N400) semantic congruity effect may have been attenuated when the nouns followed the negative verbs. Meanwhile, the negative verbs elicited a larger P2 and N400 than did the neutral verbs. The results indicate that the attention captured by emotional words impaired reanalysis of the following incongruent information, demonstrating a dynamic influence of emotional words on the semantic processing of following information during sentence comprehension.

Subliminal Emotional Words Impact Syntactic Processing: Evidence from Performance and Event-Related Brain Potentials

“…As a consequence, no anterior negativity would emerge under these conditions. This interpretation is in line with Ding et al (2016) with morphosyntactic anomalies preceded by emotional words.…”

Valence and arousal of words in visual and conceptual interference control efficiency

“…This gives us a chance to investigate the effects of valence and arousal in a separate way, which is particularly important given that there is enough evidence for their independent impact on emotions [25]. Therefore, we are able to influence the interference control needed to perform the task by manipulating one of the factors, valence or arousal [26][27][28]. Furthermore, valence and arousal refer to different phenomena: the former refers to pleasantness or unpleasantness of a given affective state; the latter is understood as the level of energy allocated to an affective state.…”

Understanding approach and avoidance in verbal descriptions of everyday actions: An ERP study

“…However, our ERP effects are difficult to explain in terms of valence in the light of prior research. As in the case of emotional words, we could expect emotional sentences to recruit more processing resources than neutral sentences, and negative sentences more than positive sentences (Carretié et al, 2008;Díaz-Lago et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2016;Herbert et al, 2006;Herbert et al 2008;Hinojosa et al, 2014;Holt et al, 2009;Kanske & Kotz, 2007;Kissler et al, 2009;Martín-Loeches et al, 2012;Moreno & Rivera, 2013;Moreno & Vázquez 2011;. As person and thing sentences did not differ in valence in the norming studies, we would expect in a passive reading task valence affecting both person and thing sentences: greater ERP amplitudes to negative in contrast to positive sentences.…”

“…Other research goes deeper into the differential processing of positive versus negative emotional contents. Ding, Wang, and Yang (2016) have shown that negative verbs caused greater N400 amplitude than neutral verbs in a task where neutral nouns have to be integrated with a verb in a previous context. Likewise, Moreno and Vázquez (2011) have shown that N400 in response to an outcome was modulated by a valenced frame (positive/negative) in emotional sentences even when outcomes were highly expected.…”