The processing of emotional words and its emotional effect characteristics: Evidence from ERP studies

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1042.2019.01842

Abstract
References
Related Articles
Metrics

Download: PDF(604 KB) HTML
Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks Supporting Info

Guide

Abstract

Language plays an important role in the exchange of emotional information. The processing of emotional language has always been the focus of emotional research. Some main views and results on emotional words processing from ERP data are analyzed and summarized: including ERP components and relationship between valence and arousal, as well as emotional effect characteristics. ERP components related to emotional word processing encompass very early P1-N1 components, early EPN components, and late LPP components. Emotional valence and arousal dimensions have shown to function as two significant factors in emotional word processing. Their relationship, however, remains undetermined. Compared with emotional pictures, emotional word processing exerts a weaker emotional effect, showing a bias towards positive valence. Future studies are required to explore relevant factors influencing emotional effect of emotional word processing, to distinguish emotional-laden words from emotional-label words, and to analyze the processing of these two types of emotional words. In addition, it is also an important topic for a future research to elucidate the emotional word processing mechanism in natural context reading by using eye-tracking technique.

Keywords emotional words valence arousal ERPs

B842

Corresponding Authors: Jiamei LU E-mail: lujiamei@vip.163.com

Issue Date: 23 September 2019

	Service

	E-mail this article
	E-mail Alert
	RSS
	Articles by authors

	Xia WANG
	Jiamei LU
	Wuying CHEN

Cite this article:

Xia WANG,Jiamei LU,Wuying CHEN. The processing of emotional words and its emotional effect characteristics: Evidence from ERP studies[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2019, 27(11): 1842-1852.

URL:

http://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlkxjz/EN/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2019.01842 OR http://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlkxjz/EN/Y2019/V27/I11/1842

1	丁小斌, 康铁君, 赵鑫, 付军军 . ( 2018). 躯体表情与面部表情加工进程比较. 心理科学进展, 26( 3), 423-432.
2	孙俊才, 刘萍, 李丹 . ( 2018). 高共情者加工情绪刺激的注意特征及其眼动证据. 心理科学, 41( 5), 1084-1089.
3	牧侠, 李雪榴, 叶春, 李红 . ( 2014). 面部表情加工的ERP成分, 心理科学进展, 22( 10), 1556-1563.
4	王振宏, 姚昭 . ( 2012). 情绪名词的具体性效应:来自ERP的证据. 心理学报, 44( 2), 154-165.
5	Bayer M., Grass A., & Schacht A . ( 2018). Associated valence impacts early visual processing of letter strings : Evidence from ERPs in a cross-modal learning paradigm. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 19( 1), 98-108.
6	Bayer M., Ruthmann K., & Schacht A . ( 2017). The impact of personal relevance on emotion processing: Evidence from event-related potentials and pupillary responses. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12( 9), 1470-1479.
7	Bayer, M., &Schacht A. (2014). Event-related brain responses to emotional words, pictures, and faces - a cross-domain comparison. Frontiers in Psychology, 5( 10), 1-10.
8	Bayer M., Sommer W., & Schacht A . ( 2010). Reading emotional words within sentences : The impact of arousal and valence on event-related potentials. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 78( 3), 299-307.
9	Bayer M., Sommer W., & Schacht A . ( 2012). P1 and beyond : Functional separation of multiple emotion effects in word recognition. Psychophysiology, 49( 7), 959-969.
10	Briesemeister B. B., Kuchinke L., & Jacobs A. M . ( 2014). Emotion word recognition: Discrete information effects first, continuous later ? Brain Research, 1564 62-71.
11	Citron,F. M. M . ( 2012). Neural correlates of written emotion word processing: A review of recent electrophysiological and hemodynamic neuroimaging studies. Brain and Language, 122( 3), 211-226.
12	Citron F. M. M., Abugaber D., & Herbert C . ( 2016). Approach and withdrawal tendencies during written word processing: Effects of task, emotional valence, and emotional arousal. Frontiers in Psychology, 6( 1), 1-11.
13	Citron F. M. M., Weekes B. S., & Ferstl E. C . ( 2013). Effects of valence and arousal on written word recognition: Time course and ERP correlates. Neuroscience Letters, 533( 1), 90-95.
14	Delaney-busch N., Wilkie G., & Kuperberg G . ( 2016). Vivid : How valence and arousal influence word processing under different task demands. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 16( 3), 415-432.
15	Ding J., Wang L., & Yang Y . ( 2016). The dynamic influence of emotional words on sentence comprehension : An ERP study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 16( 3), 433-446.
16	Espuny J., Jiménez-ortega L., Casado P., Fondevila S., Muñoz F., Hernández-gutiérrez D., & Martín-loeches M . ( 2018). Event-related brain potential correlates of words’ emotional valence irrespective of arousal and type of task. Neuroscience Letters, 670( 1), 83-88.
17	Fields,E. C., &Kuperberg,G. R . ( 2016). Dynamic effects of self-relevance and task on the neural processing of emotional words in context. Frontiers in Psychology, 6( 1), 1-12.
18	Fritsch, N., &Kuchinke L. (2013). Acquired affective associations induce emotion effects in word recognition : An ERP study. Brain & Language, 124( 1), 75-83.
19	Frühholz S., Jellinghaus A., & Herrmann M . ( 2011). Time course of implicit processing and explicit processing of emotional faces and emotional words. Biological Psychology, 87( 2), 265-274.
20	González-Villar A. J., Triñanes Y., Zurrón M., & Carrillo-De-La-Peña M. T . ( 2014). Brain processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant emotional words: An ERP study. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 14( 3), 939-950.
21	Hawelka S., Schuster S., Gagl B., & Hutzler F . ( 2015). On forward inferences of fast and slow readers. An eye movement study. Scientific Reports, 5 8432.
22	Hinojosa J. A., Albert J., López-martín S., & Carretié L . ( 2014). Temporospatial analysis of explicit and implicit processing of negative content during word comprehension. Brain and Cognition, 87 109-121.
23	Hinojosa J. A., Carretié L., Alcárcel, M. A. V, Méndez-Bértolo, C., & Pozo M. A . ( 2009). Electrophysiological differences in the processing of affective information in words and pictures. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 9( 2), 173-189.
24	Hinojosa J. A., Méndez-Bértolo C., & Pozo M. A . ( 2010). Looking at emotional words is not the same as reading emotional words : Behavioral and neural correlates. Psychophysiology, 47( 4), 748-757.
25	Hinojosa J. A., Mercado F., Albert J., Barjola P., Peláez I., Villalba-García1 C., & Carretié L . ( 2015). Neural correlates of an early attentional capture by positive distractor words. Frontiers in Psychology, 6( 1), 1-13.
26	Hofmann M. J., Kuchinke L., Tamm S., VÕ M. L. H., & Jacobs A. M . ( 2009). Affective processing within 1/10th of a second: High arousal is necessary for early facilitative processing of negative but not positive words. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 9( 4), 389-397.
27	Ito, T., &Cacioppo J. ( 2005). Variations on a human universal : Individual differences in positivity offset and negativity bias. Cognition and Emotion, 19( 1), 1-26.
28	Kaltwasser L., Ries S., Sommer W., Knight R. T., & Willems R. M . ( 2013). Independence of valence and reward in emotional word processing: Electrophysiological evidence. Frontiers in Psychology, 4( 4), 168.
29	Kanske, P., &Kotz S. ( 2007). Concreteness in emotional words: ERP evidence from a hemifield study. Brain Research, 1148( 1), 138-148.
30	Kazanas,S. A., &Altarriba J. ( 2015). The automatic activation of emotion and emotion-laden words: Evidence from a masked and unmasked priming paradigm. American Journal of Psychology, 128( 3), 323-336.
31	Kazanas,S. A., &Altarriba J. (2016). Emotion word processing: Effects of word type and valence in Spanish-English bilinguals. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45( 2), 395-406.
32	Keuper K., Zwanzger P., Nordt M., Eden A., Laeger I., Zwitserlood P., … Dobel C . ( 2014). How ‘ love ’ and ‘ hate ’ differ from ‘ sleep ’: Using combined electro / magnetoencephalographic data to reveal the sources of early cortical responses to emotional words. Human Brain Mapping, 35( 3), 875-888.
33	Kissler, J., &Herbert C. (2013). Emotion, Etmnooi, or Emitoon? - Faster lexical access to emotional than to neutral words during reading. Biological Psychology, 92( 3), 464-479.
34	Kissler J., Herbert C., Winkler I., & Junghofer M . ( 2009). Emotion and attention in visual word processing-An ERP study. Biological Psychology, 80( 1), 75-83.
35	Knickerbocker, H., &Altarriba J. (2013). Differential repetition blindness with emotion and emotion-laden word types. Visual Cognition, 21( 5), 599-627.
36	Knickerbocker H., Johnson R. L., & Altarriba J . ( 2014). Emotion effects during reading : Influence of an emotion target word on eye movements and processing. Cognitive & Emotion, 29( 5), 784-806.
37	Kuchinke L., Fritsch N., & Mu C. J . ( 2015). Evaluative conditioning of positive and negative valence affects P1 and N1 in verbal processing. Brain Research, 1624 405-413.
38	Kuchinke L., Krause B., Fritsch N., & Briesemeister B. B . ( 2014). A familiar font drives early emotional effects in word recognition. Brain and Language, 137 142-147.
39	Kuchinke, L., &Mueller,C. J . ( 2019). Are there similarities between emotional and familiarity-based processing in visual word recognition ? Journal of Neurolinguistics, 49( 9), 84-92.
40	Kulke L., Bayer M., Grimm A., & Schacht A . ( 2018). Differential effects of learned associations with words and pseudowords on event-related brain potentials. Neuropsychologia, 124, 182-191.
41	Palazova M., Mantwill K., Sommer W., & Schacht A . ( 2011). Are effects of emotion in single words non-lexical ? Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Neuropsychologia, 49( 9), 2766-2775.
42	Perry C., Willison A. T., Walker M. K., Nankivell M. C., Lawrence L. M., & Alexander T . ( 2019). Working memory load affects early affective responses to concrete and abstract words differently : Evidence from ERPs. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 19( 2), 377-391.
43	Pulvermüller F., Shtyrov Y., & Hauk O . ( 2009). Understanding in an instant : Neurophysiological evidence for mechanistic language circuits in the brain. Brain and Language, 110( 2), 81-94.
44	Recio G., Conrad M., Hansen L. B., & Jacobs A. M . ( 2014). On pleasure and thrill: The interplay between arousal and valence during visual word recognition. Brain & Language, 134 34-43.
45	Rellecke J., Palazova M., Sommer W., & Schacht A . ( 2011). On the automaticity of emotion processing in words and faces : Event-related brain potentials evidence from a superficial task. Brain and Cognition, 77( 1), 23-32.
46	Robinson M. D., Meier B. P., & Kirkeby B. S . ( 2004). Watch out! That could be dangerous: Valence-arousal interactions in evaluative processing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30( 11), 1472-1484.
47	Rohr, L., &Rahman,R. A . ( 2015). Affective responses to emotional words are boosted in communicative situations. NeuroImage, 109 273-282.
48	Rossi V., Vanlessen N., Bayer M., Grass A., Pourtois G., & Schacht A . ( 2017). Motivational salience modulates early visual cortex responses across task sets. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29( 6), 968-979.
49	Russell,J. A . ( 1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39( 6), 1161-1178.
50	Schacht A., Adler N., Chen P., Guo T., & Sommer W . ( 2012). Association with positive outcome induces early effects in event-related brain potentials. Biological Psychology, 89( 1), 130-136.
51	Schacht, A., &Sommer W. (2009a).Emotions in word and face processing: Early and late cortical responses. Brain and Cognition, 69( 3), 538-550.
52	Schacht, A., &Sommer W. (2009b).Time course and task dependence of emotion effects in word processing. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 9( 1), 28-43.
53	Schindler, S., &Kissler J. (2016). Selective visual attention to emotional words : Early parallel frontal and visual activations followed by interactive effects in visual cortex. Human Brain Mapping, 37( 10), 3575-3587.
54	Schindler S., Vormbrock R., & Kissler J . ( 2019). Emotion in context : How sender predictability and identity affect processing of words as imminent personality feedback. Frontiers in Psychology, 10( 2), 1-16.
55	Schindler S., Wegrzyn M., Steppacher I., & Kissler J . ( 2014). It’ s all in your head - how anticipating evaluation affects the processing of emotional trait adjectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 5( 11), 1-10.
56	Schindler X. S., Wegrzyn M., Steppacher I., & Kissler J . ( 2015). Perceived communicative context and emotional content amplify visual word processing in the fusiform gyrus. The Journal of Neuroscinec, 35( 15), 6010-6019.
57	Scott G. G., O’Donnell P. J., Leuthold H., & Sereno S. C . ( 2009). Early emotion word processing: Evidence from event-related potentials. Biological Psychology, 80( 1), 95-104.
58	Tempel K., Kuchinke L., Urton K., Schlochtermeier L. H., Kappelhoff H., & Jacobs A. M . ( 2013). Effects of positive pictograms and words: An emotional word superiority effect ? Journal of Neurolinguistics, 26( 6), 637-648.
59	Trauer S. M., Kotz S. A., & Müller M. M . ( 2015). Emotional words facilitate lexical but not early visual processing. BMC Neuroscience, 16( 1), 1-9.
60	Wang Y. M., Li T., & Li L . ( 2017). Valence evaluation with approaching or withdrawing cues: Directly testing valence - arousal conflict theory. Cognition and Emotion, 32( 4), 904-912.
61	Yao Z., Yu D., Wang L., Zhu X., Guo J., & Wang Z . ( 2016). Effects of valence and arousal on emotional word processing are modulated by concreteness: Behavioral and ERP evidence from a lexical decision task. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 110 231-242.
62	Yi S., He W., Zhan L., Qi Z., Zhu C., & Luo W . ( 2015). Emotional noun processing: An ERP study with rapid serial visual presentation. PLoS ONE, 10( 3), e0118924.
63	Zhang D., He W., Wang T., Luo W., Zhu X., Gu R., … Luo Y . ( 2014). Three stages of emotional word processing: An ERP study with rapid serial visual presentation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9( 12), 1897-1903.
64	Zhang J., Wu C., Meng Y., & Yuan Z . ( 2017). Different neural correlates of emotion-Label words and emotion- laden words: An ERP study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11( 9), 455-463.
65	Zhang J., Wu C., Yuan Z., & Meng Y . ( 2018). Different early and late processing of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words in second language : An ERP study. Second Language Research, 1-14.
66	Zhao W., Chen L., Zhou C., & Luo W . ( 2018). Neural correlates of emotion processing in word detection task. Frontiers in Psychology, 9( 5), 1-9.

[1]	CHEN Qingwei, RU Taotao, LUO Xue, DONG Qiaoling, ZHAI Diguo, XIONG Xiao, ZHOU Guofu. The effects of digital media usage on sleep: Mechanisms and interventions[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2019, 27(1): 70-82.
[2]	Qingqing QU, Weilin LIU, Xingshan LI. The functional unit of phonological encoding in Chinese spoken production: Study on phonemes[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2018, 26(9): 1535-1544.
[3]	XU Zhan-Fei, XI Ju-Zhe. Attitudinal ambivalence: Origins and coping strategies[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2018, 26(2): 331-343.
[4]	LI Xuejuan, ZHANG Lingcong, LI Hong. The neurobiological system for the influence of emotional arousal on memory consolidation[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2017, 25(10): 1749-1757.
[5]	XU Jiang; REN Xiaopeng; SU Hong. The influencing factors of individualism/collectivism: A perspective of ecology[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2016, 24(8): 1309-1318.
[6]	JIN Yuchang; WU Jing. The Effects of Oxytocin on Emotion Recognition and Its Mechanisms[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2016, 24(6): 934-945.
[7]	ZUO Shijiang; HUANG Niwen; WANG Fang; CAI Pan. Meaning maintenance model: The development of theory and research challenges[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2016, 24(1): 101-110.
[8]	WANG Ping; PAN Zhihui; ZHANG Lijie; CHEN Xuhai. The Integration of Dynamic Facial and Vocal Emotion and Its Neurophysiological Mechanism[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2015, 23(7): 1109-1117.
[9]	LI Bin;XU Fuming;WANG Wei;ZHANG Hui;LUO Hanbing. The Origin of Loss Aversion[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2014, 22(8): 1319-1327.
[10]	MA Jinfei;CHANG Ruosong;CHEN Xiaochen;SUN Long. The Effect of Music on Driving Vigilance and Its Theories[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2014, 22(5): 782-790.
[11]	ZHANG Jing;ZHOU Renlai;LI Yongna;WEI Qingwang;HU Ping;LIU Ke. The Neural Mechanism of Automatic Emotion Regulation and Its Plasticity[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2014, 22(1): 9-13.
[12]	LI Baolin;HUANG Xiting;BI Cuihua;CHEN Youguo. Distortions of Time Perception: The Oddball Effect[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2013, 21(6): 1086-1094.
[13]	ZHONG Yi-Ping;CHEN Yun;ZHANG Shan-Ming;YANG Qing-Song. The Mechanism and Variability of Implicit Self-positivity Bias[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2012, 20(12): 1908-1919.
[14]	YIN Rong;QU Fang-Bing;YE Hao-Sheng. ‘Good Right and Bad Left’ or ‘Good Left and Bad Right’: The Relation Between Handedness and Space Affective Valence[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2012, 20(12): 1971-1979.
[15]	LIU Ai-Ping;LI Qi;LUO Jing. The Role of Contingency Awareness in Evaluative Conditioning[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2012, 20(11): 1779-1786.

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Shared

Discussed