title: Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel.
authors.forename: Oksana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Itkes
authors.affiliation: b School of Education , Bar-Ilan University , Ramat Gan , Israel.|c The Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University , Ramat Gan , Israel.
authors.forename: Nira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mashal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affective primacy; Automatic vigilance; Cognitive primacy; Valence; Word pair processing