Emotional arousal and lexical specificity modulate response times differently depending on ear of presentation in a dichotic listening task
Blomberg, Frida LU ; Roll, Mikael LU ; Lindgren, Magnus LU ; Brännström, Jonas LU and Horne, Merle LU
(2015)
In The Mental Lexicon
10(2).
p.221-246
- Abstract
- We investigated possible hemispheric differences in the processing of four different lexical semantic categories: SPECIFIC (e.g. bird), GENERAL (e.g. animal), ABSTRACT (e.g. advice), and EMOTIONAL (e.g. love). These wordtypes were compared using a dichotic listening paradigm and a semantic category classification task. Response times (RTs) were measured when participants classified testwords as concrete or abstract. In line with previous findings, words were expected to be processed faster following right-ear presentation. However, lexical specificity and emotional arousal were predicted to modulate response times differently depending on the ear of presentation. For left-ear presentation, relatively faster RTs were predicted for SPECIFIC... (More)
- We investigated possible hemispheric differences in the processing of four different lexical semantic categories: SPECIFIC (e.g. bird), GENERAL (e.g. animal), ABSTRACT (e.g. advice), and EMOTIONAL (e.g. love). These wordtypes were compared using a dichotic listening paradigm and a semantic category classification task. Response times (RTs) were measured when participants classified testwords as concrete or abstract. In line with previous findings, words were expected to be processed faster following right-ear presentation. However, lexical specificity and emotional arousal were predicted to modulate response times differently depending on the ear of presentation. For left-ear presentation, relatively faster RTs were predicted for SPECIFIC and EMOTIONAL words as opposed to GENERAL and ABSTRACT words. An interaction of ear and wordtype was found. For right-ear presentation, RTs increased as testwords’ imageability decreased along the span SPECIFIC–GENERAL–EMOTIONAL–ABSTRACT. In contrast, for left ear presentation, EMOTIONAL words were processed fastest, while SPECIFIC words gave rise to long RTs on par with those for ABSTRACT words. Thus, the prediction for EMOTIONAL words presented in the left ear was borne out, whereas the prediction for SPECIFIC words was not. This might be related to previously found differences in processing of stimuli at a global or local level. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8051776
- author
- Blomberg, Frida
LU
; Roll, Mikael
LU
; Lindgren, Magnus
LU
; Brännström, Jonas
LU
and Horne, Merle
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- emotional words, right hemisphere, imageability, semantic representation, concrete words, abstract words, neural correlates of language, dichotic listening, left hemisphere, lexical specificity
- in
- The Mental Lexicon
- volume
- 10
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 221 - 246
- publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000364971300003
- scopus:84941347489
- ISSN
- 1871-1340
- DOI
- 10.1075/ml.10.2.03blo
- project
- Abstract, emotional and concrete words in the mental lexicon
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology (013020000), Department of Psychology (012010000), Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
- id
- b22084c6-6fa2-4de7-9c0b-41f497a9e5a4 (old id 8051776)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:05:14
- date last changed
- 2023-08-30 17:14:34
@article{b22084c6-6fa2-4de7-9c0b-41f497a9e5a4,
abstract = {{We investigated possible hemispheric differences in the processing of four different lexical semantic categories: SPECIFIC (e.g. bird), GENERAL (e.g. animal), ABSTRACT (e.g. advice), and EMOTIONAL (e.g. love). These wordtypes were compared using a dichotic listening paradigm and a semantic category classification task. Response times (RTs) were measured when participants classified testwords as concrete or abstract. In line with previous findings, words were expected to be processed faster following right-ear presentation. However, lexical specificity and emotional arousal were predicted to modulate response times differently depending on the ear of presentation. For left-ear presentation, relatively faster RTs were predicted for SPECIFIC and EMOTIONAL words as opposed to GENERAL and ABSTRACT words. An interaction of ear and wordtype was found. For right-ear presentation, RTs increased as testwords’ imageability decreased along the span SPECIFIC–GENERAL–EMOTIONAL–ABSTRACT. In contrast, for left ear presentation, EMOTIONAL words were processed fastest, while SPECIFIC words gave rise to long RTs on par with those for ABSTRACT words. Thus, the prediction for EMOTIONAL words presented in the left ear was borne out, whereas the prediction for SPECIFIC words was not. This might be related to previously found differences in processing of stimuli at a global or local level.}},
author = {{Blomberg, Frida and Roll, Mikael and Lindgren, Magnus and Brännström, Jonas and Horne, Merle}},
issn = {{1871-1340}},
keywords = {{emotional words; right hemisphere; imageability; semantic representation; concrete words; abstract words; neural correlates of language; dichotic listening; left hemisphere; lexical specificity}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{221--246}},
publisher = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
series = {{The Mental Lexicon}},
title = {{Emotional arousal and lexical specificity modulate response times differently depending on ear of presentation in a dichotic listening task}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ml.10.2.03blo}},
doi = {{10.1075/ml.10.2.03blo}},
volume = {{10}},
year = {{2015}},
}