Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.
Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.
['Itkes|Oksana|O|', 'Mashal|Nira|N|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D004644:Emotions D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008606:Mental Processes D011930:Reaction Time D011932:Reading D012660:Semantics D014825:Vocabulary D055815:Young Adult
Valence Cognitive primacy Affective primacy Automatic vigilance Word pair processing