The concreteness effect of word processing for highly neurotic individuals: an event-related potential study.

A number of studies have found a concreteness effect and an abstractness effect in word processing. The triple-component hypothesis proposed that the emotional aspect of words, such as the valence of words, contributes to the abstractness effect. Although there is no direct evidence for the role of affective characteristics of individuals in the abstractness effect, some studies have found a negative bias of highly neurotic individuals. The current study was designed to examine the abstractness effect of words for individuals who were highly neurotic. The event-related potential results showed that highly neurotic individuals exhibited an abstractness effect for negative words on the P300, which was evoked by emotion information, and a concreteness effect for negative words on the N400, which was activated by semantic processing. These results are discussed from the perspective of triple-component hypothesis.