Can Mood Affect Emotion Word Processing? Insights from a Coloured Lexical Decision Task.
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2024-06-27
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Emotion words carry certain emotional connotations and are processed faster than neutral words. Although researchers have investigated processing differences between emotion and neutral words, little is known about the influence of mood on emotion word processing. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of colour as a mood inducing factor on emotion word processing. In a lexical decision task, 22 native German L2 speakers of English were asked to judge the lexicality of positive, negative, and neutral words presented on either a red or green background. Words were reacted to faster and more accurately than non-words. Positive words yielded faster response times than negative and neutral words, regardless of colour. The present study did not find a significant effect of colour on reaction times, but on accuracy. Negative words in the red condition yielded more incorrect responses than negative words in the green condition. Response accuracy of non-words was not affected by colour. The results of the present study indicate that a colour-emotion congruent response bias interfered with the participants’ lexicality judgement, leading to more false negative responses to negative words on a red than a green background.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren