The Words of Affectivity. Affect, Category, and Social Evaluation Norms for 400 Polish Adjectives

Emotional adjectives can be grouped into two main categories: denoting and connoting stable (personality) traits and denoting and connoting transient (mood) states. They relate closely to the concept of affectivity, which is a pervasive tendency to experience moods of positive or negative valence. They constitute a rich study material for personality and affect psychology and neuroscience. Thus, this study was designed to establish a normed list of emotional adjectives with ratings encompassing four dimensions: emotional valence (positive or negative), emotional arousal (low-arousing or high-arousing), category (state, trait, and hybrid), and social judgment (competence, morality, and mixed). The adjectives were preselected based on previous broad Polish norming studies, personality and mood questionnaires, and a dictionary study. The results of the study were drawn from 195 participants who rated 400 adjectives that were chosen based on similar linguistic variables, such as frequency and word length. The dataset measures were proven to be stable and reliable. Correlations between the emotional valence and state-trait, valence and competence-morality, and emotional arousal and competence-morality dimensions were found. The study was successful in preparing a dataset of well-categorized (state, trait, and hybrid) positive and negative adjectives of moderate to high arousal ratings. Since the words were matched on linguistic variables, the set provided useful material that can be readily used for research into the effects of the category and emotional dimensions on language processing and as a basis for new personality questionnaires and mood checklists. The dataset could also be seen as a supplement for broader sets of published normed materials in Polish that link emotion and language.

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Ratings of Affective and Non-Affective Aspects of German Idioms in Second Language Processing

Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.31261/tapsla.2019.05.02 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 11-42

Author(s):

Teodor Petrič

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Processing ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Figurative Language ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Large Set ◽

Language Technology ◽

Idiomatic Expressions

AbstractIn this paper psycholinguistic and emotional properties of 619 German idiomatic expressions are explored. The list of idiomatic expressions has been adapted from Citron et al. (2015), who have used it with German native speakers. In our study the same idioms were evaluated by Slovene learners of German as a foreign language. Our participants rated each idiom for emotional valence, emotional arousal, familiarity, concreteness, ambiguity (literality), semantic transparency and figurativeness. They also had the task to describe the meaning of the German idioms and to rate their confidence about the attributed meaning. The aims of our study were (1) to provide descriptive norms for psycholinguistic and affective properties of a large set of idioms in German as a second language, (2) to explore the relationships between psycholinguistic and affective properties of idioms in German as a second language, and (3) to compare the ratings of the German native speakers studied in Citron et al. (2015) with the ratings of the Slovene second language learners from our study. On one hand, the results of the Slovene participants show many similarities with those of of the German native speakers, on the other hand, they show a slight positivity bias and slightly shallower emotional processing of the German idioms. Our study provides data that could be useful for future studies investigating the role of affect in figurative language in a second language setting (methodology, translation science, language technology).

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Semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716416000266 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 457-475 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

JUAN HARO ◽

PILAR FERRÉ ◽

ROGER BOADA ◽

JOSEP DEMESTRE

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Ambiguous Word ◽

Age Of Acquisition ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Objective Measures ◽

Semantic Ambiguity ◽

Subjective Ratings ◽

Subjective Measures ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Ambiguous Words

ABSTRACTThis study presents semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words. Two subjective measures of semantic ambiguity and two subjective measures of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings were collected. In addition, two objective measures of semantic ambiguity were included. Furthermore, subjective ratings were obtained for some relevant lexicosemantic variables, such as concreteness, familiarity, emotional valence, arousal, and age of acquisition. In sum, the database overcomes some of the limitations of the published databases of Spanish ambiguous words; in particular, the scarcity of measures of ambiguity, the lack of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings measures, and the absence of a set of unambiguous words. Thus, it will be very helpful for researchers interested in exploring semantic ambiguity as well as for those using semantic ambiguous words to study language processing in clinical populations.

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Language impairment in adults with end-stage liver disease: application of natural language processing towards patient-generated health records

npj Digital Medicine ◽

10.1038/s41746-019-0179-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lindsay K. Dickerson ◽

Masoud Rouhizadeh ◽

Yelena Korotkaya ◽

Mary Grace Bowring ◽

Allan B. Massie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Natural Language Processing ◽

Liver Disease ◽

Natural Language ◽

Liver Transplant ◽

Language Processing ◽

Word Length ◽

Post Transplant ◽

End Stage Liver Disease ◽

End Stage

Abstract End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is associated with cognitive impairment ranging from subtle alterations in attention to overt hepatic encephalopathy that resolves after transplant. Natural language processing (NLP) may provide a useful method to assess cognitive status in this population. We identified 81 liver transplant recipients with ESLD (4/2013–2/2018) who sent at least one patient-to-provider electronic message pre-transplant and post-transplant, and matched them 1:1 to “healthy” controls—who had similar disease, but had not been evaluated for liver transplant—by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and liver disease. Messages written by patients pre-transplant and post-transplant and controls was compared across 19 NLP measures using paired Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. While there was no difference overall in word length, patients with Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Score (MELD) ≥ 30 (n = 31) had decreased word length in pre-transplant messages (3.95 [interquartile range (IQR) 3.79, 4.14]) compared to post-transplant (4.13 [3.96, 4.28], p = 0.01) and controls (4.2 [4.0, 4.4], p = 0.01); there was no difference between post-transplant and controls (p = 0.4). Patients with MELD ≥ 30 had fewer 6+ letter words in pre-transplant messages (19.5% [16.4, 25.9] compared to post-transplant (23.4% [20.0, 26.7] p = 0.02) and controls (25.0% [19.2, 29.4]; p = 0.01). Overall, patients had increased sentence length pre-transplant (12.0 [9.8, 13.7]) compared to post-transplant (11.0 [9.2, 13.3]; p = 0.046); the same was seen for MELD ≥ 30 (12.3 [9.8, 13.7] pre-transplant vs. 10.8 [9.6, 13.0] post-transplant; p = 0.050). Application of NLP to patient-generated messages identified language differences—longer sentences with shorter words—that resolved after transplant. NLP may provide opportunities to detect cognitive impairment in ESLD.

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Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2013.0212 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 369 (1641) ◽

pp. 20130212 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Simon van Gaal ◽

Lionel Naccache ◽

Julia D. I. Meuwese ◽

Anouk M. van Loon ◽

Alexandra H. Leighton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Language Processing ◽

Masked Priming ◽

Rule Based ◽

Negative Valence ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Specific Rule ◽

Visible Target ◽

Eeg Recordings

What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation traditionally thought to require conscious cognitive control: the negation of valence. In a masked priming paradigm, two masked words were successively (Experiment 1) or simultaneously presented (Experiment 2), a modifier (‘not’/‘very’) and an adjective (e.g. ‘good’/‘bad’), followed by a visible target noun (e.g. ‘peace’/‘murder’). Subjects indicated whether the target noun had a positive or negative valence. The combination of these three words could either be contextually consistent (e.g. ‘very bad - murder’) or inconsistent (e.g. ‘not bad - murder’). EEG recordings revealed that grammatical negations could unfold partly unconsciously, as reflected in similar occipito-parietal N400 effects for conscious and unconscious three-word sequences forming inconsistent combinations. However, only conscious word sequences elicited P600 effects, later in time. Overall, these results suggest that multiple unconscious words can be rapidly integrated and that an unconscious negation can automatically ‘flip the sign’ of an unconscious adjective. These findings not only extend the limits of subliminal combinatorial language processes, but also highlight how consciousness modulates the grammatical integration of multiple words.

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Oxazepam and cognitive reappraisal: a randomised experiment

10.1101/656355 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Gustav Nilsonne ◽

Sandra Tamm ◽

Armita Golkar ◽

Andreas Olsson ◽

Karolina Sörman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Emotional Regulation ◽

Rating Scales ◽

Preliminary Investigation ◽

Cognitive Reappraisal ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Reactivity Index ◽

Anxiety State ◽

Negative Valence

AbstractBackgroundCognitive reappraisal is a strategy for emotional regulation, important in the context of anxiety disorders. It is not known whether anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepines affect cognitive reappraisal.AimsWe aimed to investigate the effect of 25 mg oxazepam on cognitive reappraisal.MethodsIn a preliminary investigation, 33 healthy male volunteers were randomised to oxazepam or placebo, and then underwent an experiment where they were asked to use cognitive reappraisal to upregulate or downregulate their emotional response to images with negative or neutral emotional valence. We recorded unpleasantness ratings, skin conductance, superciliary corrugator muscle activity, and heart rate. Participants completed rating scales measuring empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI), alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, TAS-20), and psychopathy (Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised, PPI-R).ResultsUpregulation to negative-valence images in the cognitive reappraisal task caused increased unpleasantness ratings, corrugator activity, and heart rate compared to downregulation. Upregulation to both negative- and neutral-valence images caused increased skin conductance responses. Oxazepam caused lower unpleasantness ratings to negative-valence stimuli, but did not interact with reappraisal instruction on any outcome. Self-rated trait empathy was associated with stronger responses to negative-valence stimuli, whereas self-rated psychopathic traits were associated with weaker responses to negative-valence stimuli.ConclusionsWhile 25 mg oxazepam caused lower unpleasantness ratings in response to negative-valence images, we did not observe an effect of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional reappraisal.

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Goodness of the side of the dominant hand: A registered direct replication of Casasanto (2009)

10.31234/osf.io/4qnfk ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Kyoshiro Sasaki ◽

Fumiya Yonemitsu ◽

Yuki Yamada

Keyword(s):

Emotional Valence ◽

The Other ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Dominant Hand ◽

Negative Valence

People associate emotional valence with the side of their dominant and non-dominant hands. Specifically, positive (negative) valence is linked with the side of dominant (non-dominant) hand known as the horizontal-valence metaphor. A previous study demonstrated that participants placed a good (bad) object on the side of their dominant (non-dominant) hand (Casasanto, 2009, J. Exp. Psychol.: Gen, 138, 351–367). This phenomenon indicates that the horizontal-valence metaphor influences our behavior. However, subsequent studies reported that the effect of the horizontal-valence metaphor was not found in the other tasks. These studies raise the following question: Is the effect of the horizontal-valence metaphor robust? In the present registered report, we conducted a direct replication of Experiment 1 from Casasanto’s study (2009). We could not replicate the results of right-handers in the previous study. Moreover, most of the effect sizes in present research were small even though their results were statistically significant. Our findings throw doubt on the robustness of the horizontal-valence metaphor. #Pre-registration of the study can be found at https://psyarxiv.com/rfvp2

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Linking emotional valence and anxiety in a mouse insula-amygdala circuit

10.21203/rs.3.rs-964107/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Céline Nicolas ◽

Anes Ju ◽

Yifan Wu ◽

Hazim Eldirdiri ◽

Sebastien Delcasso ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basolateral Amygdala ◽

Ex Vivo ◽

Insular Cortex ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Projection Neurons ◽

Negative Valence ◽

Glutamatergic Neurons ◽

Related Information ◽

Starting Point ◽

Positive And Negative Valence

Abstract The response of the insular cortex (IC) and amygdala to stimuli of positive and negative valence were found to be altered in patients with anxiety disorders. However, the coding properties of neurons controlling anxiety and valence remain unknown. Combining photometry recordings and chemogenetics in mice, we uncover the anxiogenic control of projection neurons in the anterior IC (aIC), independently of their projection target. Using viral tracing and ex vivo electrophysiology, we characterize the monosynaptic aIC to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) connection, and employed projection-specific optogenetics, to reveal anxiogenic properties of aIC-BLA neurons in anxiety-related behaviors. Finally, using photometry recordings, we identified that aIC-BLA neurons are active in anxiogenic spaces, and in response to aversive stimuli. Together, these findings show that negative valence, as well as anxiety-related information and behaviors, are encoded by aICBLA glutamatergic neurons, providing a starting point to understand how alterations of this pathway contribute to psychiatric disorders.

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Spatial metaphors in antonym pairs across sign languages

Sign Language & Linguistics ◽

10.1075/sll.00046.bor ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (1-2) ◽

pp. 112-141

Author(s):

Carl Börstell ◽

Ryan Lepic

Keyword(s):

Emotional Valence ◽

Movement Direction ◽

Physical Sign ◽

Sign Languages ◽

Negative Valence ◽

Manual Analysis ◽

Linguistic Patterns ◽

Systematic Pattern ◽

Positive Valence ◽

Over Time

Abstract We analyze sign locations in 776 signs from 16 antonym pairs across 27 sign languages to examine metaphorical mappings of emotional valence (positive vs. negative) along different spatial axes. We conduct both an automatic and a manual analysis of sign location and movement direction, to investigate cross-linguistic patterns of spatial valence contrasts. Contrary to our hypothesis, negative valence concepts are generally articulated higher up than their positive counterparts. However, when we consider movement in space, we find that although signs generally move downward over time, positive valence concepts are associated with upward movements more often than their negative counterparts. This points to a systematic pattern for vertical valence contrasts – a known metaphor across languages – iconically mapped onto physical sign articulation. We similarly, but surprisingly, find a difference in movements along the sagittal axis, such that outward movement is associated with positive valence concepts more often than negative.

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The pattern of force produced during approach-avoidance movements is independent of emotional valence

10.31234/osf.io/jg24s ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Greg Dam ◽

Zach Catron ◽

Cassidy Segura Clouse

Keyword(s):

Reaction Times ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Approach And Avoidance ◽

Negative Valence ◽

Approach Behaviors ◽

Direction Of Movement ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

Positive Valence ◽

Pushing And Pulling

Movements that include pushing away and pulling towards oneself are important avoidance and approach behaviors, respectively. Previous research has demonstrated that reaction times are more rapid when approach-like movements are undertaken in response to pleasant emotional stimuli and when avoidant movements are carried out in response to unpleasant emotional stimuli. However, few studies have directly investigated the forces applied during self-referenced approach or avoidance movements. Here we measured the sustained forces of pushing and pulling in response to emotional images. The images presented varied in ratings of emotional arousal (i.e., relaxing versus exciting) and valence (positive valence, or pleasant, versus negative valence, or unpleasant). Our results replicate previous findings that documented force produced in response to unpleasant images. Our findings also revealed that, in contrast to their impact on reaction times, the effects of emotional stimuli on the sustained forces associated with approach and avoidance responses are independent of the direction of movement.

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The Relationship between Psycholinguistic Features of Religious Words and Core Dimensions of Religiosity: A Survey Study with Japanese Participants

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel11120673 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 673 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Toshimune Kambara ◽

Tomotaka Umemura ◽

Michael Ackert ◽

Yutao Yang

Keyword(s):

Japanese Version ◽

Emotional Arousal ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Survey Study ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Public Practice ◽

Religious People ◽

The Core ◽

Emotional Aspects ◽

The Relationship

Previous studies have reported that religious words and religiosity affect mental processes and behaviors. However, it is unclear what psycholinguistic features of religious words (e.g., familiarity, imageability, and emotional aspects) are associated with each dimension of personal religiosity (intellect, ideology, public practice, private practice, and experience). The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the above-mentioned psycholinguistic features of religious words correlate with each of the core dimensions of religiosity. Japanese participants evaluated four psycholinguistic features of twelve religious words using a 5-point Semantic Differential scale for familiarity and imageability and a 9-point Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) scale for emotional valence and emotional arousal. The participants also rated their own religiosity using the Japanese version of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (JCRS). The results of the study revealed that (1) the scales measuring the psycholinguistic features of religious words were statistically reliable; (2) the JCRS was reliable; (3) the familiarity, emotional valence, and emotional arousal of religious words and each mean dimensional score of the JCRS score correlated positively with each other; and (4) highly religious people had higher familiarity and higher emotional arousal to religious words than non-religious people, whereas highly religious people had higher emotional valence to religious words in comparison with non-religious and religious people. In addition, religious people had higher familiarity to religious words than non-religious people. Taken together, these findings suggest that psycholinguistic features of religious words contribute to the detection of religiosity.

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