Affective words can be classified into two types: emotion words (EM words, e.g., “happy”) and emotion-laden words (EL words, e.g., “wedding”). Several studies have shown differences in processing between EM and EL words, although results are inconclusive. These two types of words may have representational differences because affective content is an inherent part of the semantic features of EM words (i.e., denotative meaning) but not of EL words, whose affective content is part of their connotative meaning (i.e., these words do not name emotions, but are associated with emotions). In this study, we tested a set of Chinese EM and EL words. Both conditions included positive and negative words. The study involved two tasks, an implicit task, in which emotional content was not relevant (lexical decision task, LDT), and an explicit task, in which the emotional content was relevant (affective categorisation task, ACT). Our results showed that participants responded faster to EM words than to EL words. This advantage was mostly observed in the ACT and with negative words. These results reveal differences in processing between EM and EL words which can be related to the greater relevance of affective content in the meaning of EM words compared with EL words.
AlgomD.ChajutE.LevS. (2004). A rational look at the emotional Stroop phenomenon: A generic slowdown, not a Stroop effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133(3), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.323
2.
AltarribaJ. (2006). Cognitive approaches to the study of emotion-laden and emotion words in monolingual and bilingual memory. In Bilingual minds (pp. 232–256). https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853598746-011
3.
AltarribaJ.Basnight-BrownD. (2011). The representation of emotion vs. emotion-laden words in English and Spanish in the Affective Simon Task. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15(3), 310–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006910379261
4.
BaayenR. H. (2008). Analyzing linguistic data: A practical introduction to statistics using R. Cambridge University Press.
5.
BaayenR. H.DavidsonD. J.BatesD. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 390–412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.12.005
6.
BarrD. J.LevyR.ScheepersC.TilyH. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(3), 255–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001
7.
BatesD.MaechlerM.BolkerB.WalkerS. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
8.
Bromberek-DyzmanK.JończykR.VasileanuM.Niculescu-GorpinA.-G.BąkH. (2021). Cross-linguistic differences affect emotion and emotion-laden word processing: Evidence from Polish-English and Romanian-English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(5), 1161–1182. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006920987306
9.
CaiQ.BrysbaertM. (2010). SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles. PLOS ONE, 5(6), Article e10729. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010729
10.
ChanY.-L.TseC. S. (2024). Decoding the essence of two-character Chinese words: Unveiling valence, arousal, concreteness, familiarity, and imageability through word norming. Behavior Research Methods, 56, 7574–7601. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02437-w
11.
ChenP.LinJ.ChenB.LuC.GuoT. (2015). Processing emotional words in two languages with one brain: ERP and fMRI evidence from Chinese–English bilinguals. Cortex, 71, 34–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.002
12.
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Ed. (2016). 《现代汉语词典（第七版）》 [Contemporary Chinese dictionary, seventh edition]. The Commercial Press.
ComesañaM.FragaI.MoreiraA. J.FradeC. S.SoaresA. P. (2014). Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups. Behavior Research Methods, 46(2), 564–574. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0388-0
15.
CrossfieldE.DamianM. F. (2021). The role of valence in word processing: Evidence from lexical decision and emotional Stroop tasks. Acta Psychologica, 218, 103359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103359
16.
Delaney-BuschN.WilkielG.KuperbergG. (2016). Vivid: How valence and arousal influence word processing under different task demands. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, 415–432. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0402-y
17.
DewaeleJ.-M. (2016). Thirty shades of offensiveness: L1 and LX English users’ understanding, perception and self-reported use of negative emotion-laden words. Journal of Pragmatics, 94, 112–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.01.009
18.
El-DakhsD. A.AltarribaJ. (2019). How do emotion word type and valence influence language processing? The case of Arabic–English bilinguals. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48(5), 1063–1085. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09647-w
FrühholzS.JellinghausA.HerrmannM. (2011). Time course of implicit processing and explicit processing of emotional faces and emotional words. Biological Psychology, 87, 265–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.03.008
21.
González-VillarA. J.TrinanesY.ZurronM.Carrillo-de-la-PenaM. T. (2014). Brain processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant emotional words: An ERP study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(3), 939–950. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-013-0247-6
22.
HinojosaJ. A.AlbertJ.López-MartínS.CarretiéL. (2014). Temporospatial analysis of explicit and implicit processing of negative content during word comprehension. Brain and Cognition, 87, 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2014.03.008
23.
HinojosaJ. A.MorenoE. M.FerréP. (2020). Affective neurolinguistics: Towards a framework for reconciling language and Emotion. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 35(7), 813–839. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957
KazanasS. A.AltarribaJ. (2015). The automatic activation of emotion and emotion-laden words: Evidence from a masked and unmasked priming paradigm. The American Journal of Psychology, 128(3), 323–336. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.128.3.0323
27.
KazanasS. A.AltarribaJ. (2016). Emotion word processing: Effects of word type and valence in Spanish–English bilinguals. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(2), 395–406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-015-9357-3
KnickerbockerF.JohnsonR. L.StarrE. L.HallA. M.PretiD. M.SlateS. R.AltarribaJ. (2019). The time course of processing emotion-laden words during sentence reading: Evidence from eye movements. Acta Psychologica, 192, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.10.008
30.
KnickerbockerH.AltarribaJ. (2013). Differential repetition blindness with emotion and emotion-laden word types. Visual Cognition, 21(5), 599–627. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2013.815297
31.
KoustaS.-T.VinsonD. P.ViglioccoG. (2009). Emotion words, regardless of polarity, have a processing advantage over neutral words. Cognition, 112, 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.06.007
32.
KuchinkeL.VõM. L.HoffmannM.JacobsA. M. (2007). Pupillary responses during lexical decisions vary with word frequency but not emotional valence. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65(2), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.04.004
33.
KupermanV.EstesZ.BrysbaertM.WarrinerA. B. (2014). Emotion and language: Valence and arousal affect word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1065–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035669
LangP. J.GreenwaldM. K.BradleyM. M.HammA. O. (1993). Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. Psychophysiology, 30(3), 261–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb03352.x
36.
LarsenR. J.MercerK. A.BalotaD. A. (2006). Lexical characteristics of words used in emotional Stroop experiments. Emotion, 6(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.62
LewisP. A.CritchleyH. D.RotshteinP.DolanR. J. (2007). Neural correlates of processing valence and arousal in affective words. Cerebral Cortex, 17(3), 742–748. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhk024
39.
LiaoX.NiC. (2022). The effects of emotionality and lexical category on L2 word processing in different tasks: Evidence from late Chinese-English bilinguals. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(5), 907–923. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211041833
40.
LiuJ.FanL.TianL.LiC.FengW. (2023). The neural mechanisms of explicit and implicit processing of Chinese emotion-label and emotion-laden words: Evidence from emotional categorization and emotional Stroop tasks. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 38(10), 1412–1429. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2022.2093389
41.
MartinJ. M.AltarribaJ. (2017). Effects of valence on hemispheric specialization for emotion word processing. Language and Speech, 60(4), 597–613. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830916686128
42.
NelsonD. L.McEvoyC. L.SchreiberT. A. (2004). The University of South Florida Free Association, Rhyme, and word fragment norms. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(3), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03195588
43.
PaivioA.YuilleJ. C.MadiganS. A. (1968). Concreteness, imagery, and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(1–2), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0025327
44.
PalazovaM.MantwillK.SommerW.SchachtA. (2011). Are effects of emotion in single words non-lexical? Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Neuropsychologia, 49(9), 2766–2775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.06.005
45.
PavlenkoA. (2008). Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 147–164. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728908003283
46.
PonariM.NorburyC. F.ViglioccoG. (2018). Acquisition of abstract concepts is influenced by emotional valence. Developmental Science, 21(2), e12549. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12549
47.
PrattoF.JohnO. P. (1991). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of negative social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(3), 380–391. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.3.380
48.
RussellJ. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714
49.
SchindlerS.VormbrockR.HelmingH.StraubeT. (2023). Dissociating different temporal stages of emotional word processing by feature-based attention. Scientific Reports, 13, 16860. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43794-4
50.
ScottG. G.O’DonnellP. J.LeutholdH.SerenoS. C. (2009). Early emotion word processing: Evidence from event-related potentials. Biological Psychology, 80(1), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.03.010
51.
ScottG. G.O’DonnellP. J.SerenoS. C. (2014). Emotion words and categories: Evidence from lexical decision. Cognitive Processing, 15(2), 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-013-0589-6
52.
StoetG. (2010). PsyToolkit—A software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux. Behavior Research Methods, 42(4), 1096–1104. https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.42.4.1096
53.
StoetG. (2017). PsyToolkit: A novel web-based method for running online questionnaires and reaction-time experiments. Teaching of Psychology, 44(1), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628316677643
54.
TsangY.-K.HuangJ.LuiM.XueM.ChanY.-W. F.WangS.ChenH.-C. (2017). MELD-SCH: A megastudy of lexical decision in simplified Chinese. Behavior Research Methods, 50(5), 1763–1777. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0944-0
WangX.ShangguanC.LuJ. (2019). Time course of emotion effects during emotion-label and emotion-laden word processing. Neuroscience Letters, 699, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2019.01.028
57.
WarrinerA. B.KupermanV.BrysbaertM. (2013). Norms of valence, arousal, and dominance for 13,915 English lemmas. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1191–1207. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0314-x
58.
WenturaD.RothermundK.BakP. (2000). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(6), 1024–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.6.1024
59.
WilliamsJ. M.MathewsA.MacLeodC. (1996). The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 120(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.3
60.
WuC.ShiY.ZhangJ. (2023). Beyond valence and arousal: The role of age of acquisition in emotion word recognition. Behavioral Sciences, 13, 568. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13070568
61.
WuC.ZhangJ. (2019). Conflict processing is modulated by positive emotion word type in second language: An ERP study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48(5), 1203–1216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09653-y
62.
WuC.ZhangJ.YuanZ. (2021). Can masked emotion-laden words prime emotion-label words? An ERP test on the mediated account. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 721783. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.721783
XuX.LiJ.ChenH. (2021). Valence and arousal ratings for 11,310 simplified Chinese words. Behavior Research Methods, 54(1), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01607-4
65.
XuX.LiJ.GuoS. (2020). Age of acquisition ratings for 19,716 simplified Chinese words. Behavior Research Methods, 53(2), 558–573. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01455-8
66.
ZhangD.HeW.WangT.LuoW.ZhuX.GuR.LiH.LuoY. (2014). Three stages of emotional word processing: An ERP study with rapid serial visual presentation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(12), 1897–1903. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nst188
67.
ZhangJ.TeoT.WuC. (2018). Emotion words modulate early conflict processing in a flanker task: Differentiating emotion-label words and emotion-laden words in second language. Language and Speech, 62(4), 641–651. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830918807509
68.
ZhangJ.WuC.MengY.YuanZ. (2017). Different neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words: An ERP study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, Article 455. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00455
69.
ZhangJ.WuC.YuanZ.MengY. (2018b). Different early and late processing of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words in a second language: An ERP study. Second Language Research, 36(3), 399–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658318804850
70.
ZhengR.GuoT.GuaschM.FerréP. (2021, June22–25). Representational differences between Chinese emotion and emotion-laden words: A word association study [Poster presentation]. XV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics. Online symposium.
71.
ZhengR.ZhangM.GuoT.GuaschM.FerréP. (2023). Emotional prototypicality ratings for 636 Chinese words: A database of Chinese words with affective information. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 52, 2775–2792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-10018-9
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
