Cross-Cultural and Gender Comparison of Emotional Connotation of Words

So far, scientists have researched to explore the emotional connotation of words in different native languages and genders. This study investigates how connotations of words differ by cultures and genders by inspecting valence values, which indicates how happy people feel about specific words in datasets obtained from USA, Spain, and Portuguese. To fulfill the objective, we categorized people’s feelings evoked by the words based on a criterion created by adding or subtracting standard deviation to or from valence means for the upper and lower bound. Then, words with valence values outside of the upper and lower bounds were categorized as emotional words (positive or negative) and were analyzed. The results show that people of different cultures are more connected regarding the perception of negative connotation of words than positive connotation. Moreover, Portuguese and Spanish are more connected than either of them with the US as they have more emotion words in common. On the gender aspect, we notice that females tend to give more extreme ratings for words than males. Furthermore, the analysis shows that males have a more positive feeling towards sex-related words than females. Overall, this study outlines a way for people interested in anthropology to understand the differences in the emotional connotation of words between males and females and across cultures.

Did you see that? False memories for emotional words in bilingual children

When participants process a list of semantically strongly related words, the ones that were not presented may later be said, falsely, to have been on the list. This ‘false memory effect’ has been investigated by means of the DRM paradigm. We applied an emotional version of it to assess the false memory effect for emotional words in bilingual children with a minority language as L1 (their mother tongue) and a monolingual control group. We found that the higher emotionality of the words enhances memory distortion for both the bilingual and the monolingual children, in spite of the disadvantage related to vocabulary skills and of the socioeconomic status that acts on semantic processing independently from the condition of bilingualism. We conclude that bilingual children develop their semantic knowledge separately from their vocabulary skills and parallel to their monolingual peers, with a comparable role played by Arousal and Valence.

Dissociation Between Speech and Emotion Effects in Short-Term Memory: A Data Reanalysis.

Performance in visual serial recall tasks is often impaired by irrelevant auditory distracters. The duplex-mechanism account of auditory distraction states that if the distracters provide order cues, these interfere with the processing of the order cues in the serial recall task (interference by process). In contrast, the unitary account states that distracters capture only attention on a general level (attentional distraction) without interfering specifically withorder processing. Marsh et al. (2018, Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 44, 882-897) reported finding a dissociation between the effects of serial recall tasks and those of a missing-item task on the disruptive effects of speech and of emotional words, as predicted by the duplex-mechanism account. Critically, the reported analyses did not test specifically for the claimed dissociation. Therefore, I reanalyzed the Marsh et al. data and conducted the appropriate analyses. I also tested the dissociation more directly and added a Bayesian hypothesis test to measure the strength of the evidence for a dissociation. Results provided strong evidence for a dissociation (i.e., crossover interaction) between effects of speech and of emotion. Because the duplex-mechanism account predicts this dissociation between speech effects (interference by process) and emotion effects (attentionaldiversion) whereas the unitary account does not, Marsh et al.’s data support the duplex-mechanism account. However, to show that this dissociation is robust, researchers are advised to replicate this dissociation in an adversarial registered report.

Emotions explain differences in the diffusion of true vs. false social media rumors

False rumors (often termed “fake news”) on social media pose a significant threat to modern societies. However, potential reasons for the widespread diffusion of false rumors have been underexplored. In this work, we analyze whether sentiment words, as well as different emotional words, in social media content explain differences in the spread of true vs. false rumors. For this purpose, we collected $${\varvec{N}} =126{,}301$$ N = 126 , 301 rumor cascades from Twitter, comprising more than 4.5 million retweets that have been fact-checked for veracity. We then categorized the language in social media content to (1) sentiment (i.e., positive vs. negative) and (2) eight basic emotions (i. e., anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, trust, sadness, and surprise). We find that sentiment and basic emotions explain differences in the structural properties of true vs. false rumor cascades. False rumors (as compared to true rumors) are more likely to go viral if they convey a higher proportion of terms associated with a positive sentiment. Further, false rumors are viral when embedding emotional words classified as trust, anticipation, or anger. All else being equal, false rumors conveying one standard deviation more positive sentiment have a 37.58% longer lifetime and reach 61.44% more users. Our findings offer insights into how true vs. false rumors spread and highlight the importance of managing emotions in social media content.

A multi-modal and multi-scale emotion-enhanced inference model based on fuzzy recognition

Only the label corresponding to the maximum value of the fully connected layer is used as the output category when a neural network performs classification tasks. When the maximum value of the fully connected layer is close to the sub-maximum value, the classification obtained by considering only the maximum value and ignoring the sub-maximum value is not completely accurate. To reduce the noise and improve classification accuracy, combining the principles of fuzzy reasoning, this paper integrates all the output results of the fully connected layer with the emotional tendency of the text based on the dictionary to establish a multi-modal fuzzy recognition emotion enhancement model. The provided model considers the enhancement effect of negative words, degree adverbs, exclamation marks, and question marks based on the smallest subtree on the emotion of emotional words, and defines the global emotional membership function of emojis based on the corpus. Through comparing the results of CNN, LSTM, BiLSTM and GRU on Weibo and Douyin, it is shown that the provided model can effectively improve the text emotion recognition when the neural network output result is not clear, especially for long texts.

The Effect of Valence and Arousal on Spatial Attention

<p>Conceptual metaphor theory suggests that to mentally represent abstract concepts we use metaphorical associations to map them onto more concrete constructs (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; 1999). Using a choice reaction time (CRT) task, Meier and Robinson (2004) found that positively valenced words primed attention to higher areas in vertical space, while negatively valenced words primed attention to lower areas in vertical space, consistent with the good is up/bad is down conceptual metaphor. Meier and Robinson (2004; 2005) suggest this provides evidence that emotional words create an automatic and obligatory metaphor-congruent shift in spatial attention, driven by a Valence x Position interaction. However, other research shows that the arousal level, not just the valence of emotional words can affect reaction time (Robinson, Storbeck, Meier & Kirkeby, 2004). This means concluding that valence alone is driving the shift in attention is premature. Furthermore, Brookshire, Irvy and Casasanto (2010) dispute Meier and Robinson’s claim that the relationship between affect and metaphor is automatic, instead suggesting that affect-metaphor associations are optional and only accessed under certain contextual conditions. The purpose of this thesis was therefore two-fold. First, it aimed to explore whether valence, arousal, or an interaction between the two was responsible for driving the metaphor-consistent shift in spatial attention observed by Meier and Robinson (2004). Second, it aimed to progress the discussion about when affective stimuli, in the form of emotional words, automatically activate the good is up/bad is down conceptual metaphor. Three CRT experiments were conducted in which (a) emotional stimulus words were differentiated by arousal level as well as valence and (b) the evaluation of stimulus words’ affective tone (pleasant/unpleasant) was manipulated. A Valence x Position interaction in relation to the good is up but not bad is down conceptual metaphor was found when the valence of priming words was evaluated, suggesting valence, rather than arousal or a combination of both, is driving the affect-metaphor relationship. No evidence for the automatic activation of affect-metaphor associations was found when the word’s affective tone was not evaluated. These findings suggest that while driven by valence, affect-metaphor associations are not fully automatic and occur only under certain contextual conditions. The implications for our understanding of how emotion impacts spatial attention are discussed, suggesting metaphors enrich, rather than monopolise our mental representation of abstract, affective concepts.</p>

The Effect of Valence and Arousal on Spatial Attention

<p>Conceptual metaphor theory suggests that to mentally represent abstract concepts we use metaphorical associations to map them onto more concrete constructs (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; 1999). Using a choice reaction time (CRT) task, Meier and Robinson (2004) found that positively valenced words primed attention to higher areas in vertical space, while negatively valenced words primed attention to lower areas in vertical space, consistent with the good is up/bad is down conceptual metaphor. Meier and Robinson (2004; 2005) suggest this provides evidence that emotional words create an automatic and obligatory metaphor-congruent shift in spatial attention, driven by a Valence x Position interaction. However, other research shows that the arousal level, not just the valence of emotional words can affect reaction time (Robinson, Storbeck, Meier & Kirkeby, 2004). This means concluding that valence alone is driving the shift in attention is premature. Furthermore, Brookshire, Irvy and Casasanto (2010) dispute Meier and Robinson’s claim that the relationship between affect and metaphor is automatic, instead suggesting that affect-metaphor associations are optional and only accessed under certain contextual conditions. The purpose of this thesis was therefore two-fold. First, it aimed to explore whether valence, arousal, or an interaction between the two was responsible for driving the metaphor-consistent shift in spatial attention observed by Meier and Robinson (2004). Second, it aimed to progress the discussion about when affective stimuli, in the form of emotional words, automatically activate the good is up/bad is down conceptual metaphor. Three CRT experiments were conducted in which (a) emotional stimulus words were differentiated by arousal level as well as valence and (b) the evaluation of stimulus words’ affective tone (pleasant/unpleasant) was manipulated. A Valence x Position interaction in relation to the good is up but not bad is down conceptual metaphor was found when the valence of priming words was evaluated, suggesting valence, rather than arousal or a combination of both, is driving the affect-metaphor relationship. No evidence for the automatic activation of affect-metaphor associations was found when the word’s affective tone was not evaluated. These findings suggest that while driven by valence, affect-metaphor associations are not fully automatic and occur only under certain contextual conditions. The implications for our understanding of how emotion impacts spatial attention are discussed, suggesting metaphors enrich, rather than monopolise our mental representation of abstract, affective concepts.</p>

Words and Faces on Left and Right: Perceptual Asymmetries as a Marker for SSRI Responsiveness

<p>Vulnerability to depression has been associated with greater relative right hemisphere frontal activity, as measured by EEG recordings of alpha activity. However, there is much heterogeneity in the patterns of hemispheric asymmetries in people at risk for depression. These different patterns of hemispheric asymmetries may be related to whether an individual responds to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) medication. Response to SSRIs is associated with a pattern of overall relative LH activity, whereas non-response to SSRIs is associated with a pattern of overall relative RH activity. Very little is known about how these asymmetries in neural activity relate to asymmetries in cognition. The current study investigated hemispheric differences in the processing of emotional faces and words, in individuals not vulnerable to depression (a Never Depressed group) and in individuals vulnerable to depression (a Previously Depressed group). In the chimeric faces task, the Previously Depressed group had a significantly larger left hemispatial bias compared to the Never Depressed group. This may reflect relatively greater posterior RH activity/arousal in the Previously Depressed group. No differences were found between SSRI Responders and Non-responders in the chimeric faces task. In the divided visual field task, hemispheric differences in the processing of emotional words were found between the SSRI Responders and SSRI Non-responders. In contrast to SSRI Responders and Never Depressed controls, SSRI Non-responders showed a relative advantage for negative over positive words when they were presented to their LVF/RH; and an advantage for negative words presented to their LVF/RH compared to their RVF/LH. Additionally, they were more sensitive to perceiving the valence of a word that was presented to their LVF/RH. This suggests that their RH semantic systems may differ from that of SSRI Responders and Never Depressed controls. Genetic, hormonal and cognitive factors are discussed in relation to these patterns of hemispheric asymmetries and responsiveness to SSRI medication.</p>

Words and Faces on Left and Right: Perceptual Asymmetries as a Marker for SSRI Responsiveness

<p>Vulnerability to depression has been associated with greater relative right hemisphere frontal activity, as measured by EEG recordings of alpha activity. However, there is much heterogeneity in the patterns of hemispheric asymmetries in people at risk for depression. These different patterns of hemispheric asymmetries may be related to whether an individual responds to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) medication. Response to SSRIs is associated with a pattern of overall relative LH activity, whereas non-response to SSRIs is associated with a pattern of overall relative RH activity. Very little is known about how these asymmetries in neural activity relate to asymmetries in cognition. The current study investigated hemispheric differences in the processing of emotional faces and words, in individuals not vulnerable to depression (a Never Depressed group) and in individuals vulnerable to depression (a Previously Depressed group). In the chimeric faces task, the Previously Depressed group had a significantly larger left hemispatial bias compared to the Never Depressed group. This may reflect relatively greater posterior RH activity/arousal in the Previously Depressed group. No differences were found between SSRI Responders and Non-responders in the chimeric faces task. In the divided visual field task, hemispheric differences in the processing of emotional words were found between the SSRI Responders and SSRI Non-responders. In contrast to SSRI Responders and Never Depressed controls, SSRI Non-responders showed a relative advantage for negative over positive words when they were presented to their LVF/RH; and an advantage for negative words presented to their LVF/RH compared to their RVF/LH. Additionally, they were more sensitive to perceiving the valence of a word that was presented to their LVF/RH. This suggests that their RH semantic systems may differ from that of SSRI Responders and Never Depressed controls. Genetic, hormonal and cognitive factors are discussed in relation to these patterns of hemispheric asymmetries and responsiveness to SSRI medication.</p>