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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1180-1187 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Cognition and Emotion |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 26 May 2015 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
Keywords
- Affective primacy
- Automatic vigilance
- Cognitive primacy
- Valence
- Word pair processing