title: Individual differences in emotion word processing: A diffusion model analysis.
abstract: The exploratory study investigated individual differences in implicit processing of emotional words in a lexical decision task. A processing advantage for positive words was observed, and differences between happy and fear-related words in response times were predicted by individual differences in specific variables of emotion processing: Whereas more pronounced goal-directed behavior was related to a specific slowdown in processing of fear-related words, the rate of spontaneous eye blinks (indexing brain dopamine levels) was associated with a processing advantage of happy words. Estimating diffusion model parameters revealed that the drift rate (rate of information accumulation) captures unique variance of processing differences between happy and fear-related words, with highest drift rates observed for happy words. Overall emotion recognition ability predicted individual differences in drift rates between happy and fear-related words. The findings emphasize that a significant amount of variance in emotion processing is explained by individual differences in behavioral data.
authors: Experimental Psychology & Methods, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44780, Bochum, Germany. christina.mueller-g4m@rub.de.|International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Germany. christina.mueller-g4m@rub.de.
authors: Christina J
authors: CJ
authors: Mueller
authors: Experimental Psychology & Methods, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44780, Bochum, Germany. Lars.Kuchinke@rub.de.|International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Lars.Kuchinke@rub.de.
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Kuchinke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Diffusion model; Dopamine; Emotion processing; Individual differences; Lexical decision task