How emotional are words ambiguous on the spaces of valence, origin and activation?

Not all of the stimuli that we encounter are unequivocal; some of them may be ambiguous. In a series of two experiments, we investigated how people perceive and assess the emotionality of the words ambiguous on three emotional spaces: valence (dimensions of positivity and negativity), origin (automaticity and reflectiveness), and activation (arousal and subjective significance). Using two types of measurement - behavioural and webcam-based eye tracking - we compared words of moderate and high ambiguity on each of those spaces with control (uniequivocal) words. The behavioural measurements indicated that reaction times were significantly longer for the control words than for all the ambiguous words; the emotionality of words of ambiguous valence and origin was rated as significantly lower than the control words and words of ambiguous activation. The eye-tracking measurements indicated that words of ambiguous valence and origin caused significantly more and longer eye fixations than control words and words of ambiguous activation. The results showed the visible distinctiveness of the ambiguous words compared with the control words; they also showed differences between words of various ambiguities, verifying the proposed new model for the emotional ambiguity and presenting the behavioral and eye tracking correlates for each of the three ambiguities.

Affective norms for emotional ambiguity in valence, origin, and activation spaces.

We introduce the first tool to measure the emotional ambiguity on three bivariate spaces: valence (dimensions of positivity and negativity); origin (automaticity and reflectiveness); and activation (subjective significance and arousal). Our database consists of 2650 word stimuli, assessed by 1380 participants in total with the usage of Self-Assessment Manikin scales for each dimension. We show that the ambiguity of valence, origin, and activation may be successfully perceived and reported in a behavioral procedure. The study has allowed us to compute characteristics of each word for every emotional dimension, thus providing the category of intensity of ambiguity (low, moderate, or high). We also studied the curvilinear relationships between the dimensions. Possible usage, specifics, and limitations of our database are discussed.

Can Emotional Awareness of Liars Influence Deception Detection Effectiveness?

Emotional awareness is defined as the ability to cognitively process emotional arousal and the expression thereof. When telling a lie, emotional awareness comes into play: the most important objective is to conceal one's true emotions and fabricate false ones; simultaneously, however, one must control for the affective state of those who are to believe the falsehood; via such efforts, one can assess the potential for success in the deceit. With this in mind, we hypothesized that emotional awareness may play a vital role in the process of creating a convincing lie. Study participants (Group A, N = 40) were asked to complete the Polish adaptation of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) and record videos consisting of plotting some truth or lie, which were then rated as true or false by 400 volunteers (Group B). Both samples (Group A and Group B) were recruited among students attending Polish universities. The results allowed us to confirm correlational relationships between emotional awareness (general, self-awareness, and awareness of others' emotions) and the effectiveness of the deception. We were also able to confirm previous studies' results about the truth bias in detecting lies and gender differences in emotional awareness.

Arousal and Subjective Significance Shapes Stimuli Interpretation across Warmth Vs. Competence Dimensions.

The current study sought to examine the impact of incidental activation defined as arousal and subjective significance, both represented in connotations of verbal materials, on social perception of unknown and thus ambiguous objects, in terms of two basic dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence. Arousal was expected to promote interpretation of ambiguous stimuli in terms of warmth, while subjective significance in terms of competence. This means that both activation and social perception may be treated as examples dual-mind systems functioning. Sixty participants (30 women) were exposed to two subsequent tasks. The first involved memorizing 135 words (manipulation prepared in a factorial design contrasting 3 levels of arousal and 3 levels of subjective significance), and the second involved guessing the meaning of hexagram stimuli derived from Far East culture. An increasing level of arousal caused participants to interpret stimuli as increasingly related to warmth, while an increasing level of subjective significance led to interpretations more related to competence. This study shows that two distinct types of activation may trigger different interpretations of social stimuli, which means that there is a link between both types of processes. This finding is of great importance for the dual-mind approach, showing that a multitude of dualities indentified thus far may be related one another. Therefore, it is justified to treat them as emanations of more general mental systems.

Valence and Origin of Emotional Words Influence on Subsequent Perception of Ambiguous Stimuli in Terms of Competence Versus Warmth.

The aim of this study was to examine whether the valence and origin of emotional words can alter perception of ambiguous objects in terms of warmth versus competence, fundamental dimensions of social cognition. 60 individuals were invited into the study focusing on the limits of intuition. They were asked to try to guess the meaning of Japanese pictorial signs in terms of their warmth versus competence connotations. Before each trial a subsequent memory load task was applied. Participants were supposed to read and remember words creating a factorial manipulation of valence (three levels) and origins (three levels: automatic, neutral and reflective) of affective connotations presenting to them for 500 ms. For positively valenced words, automatic originated ones resulted in perception of ambiguous signs more in terms of warmth, while reflective originated words resulted in perception of signs more in terms of competence. This study shows that social perception of warmth versus competence is susceptible to emotional influence of unrelated stimulation, and thus can be primed by objects in the environment. Warmth may be treated as linked with automatic mind processes, while competence may be treated as associated with the controlled part of the mind. In a broader context, this experiment results support claim that distinct dualities identified in dual-processes theories of mind are related to one another, and in fact they may be emanations of two more general systems of mind.

Does Reading Words Differing in Arousal Load Influence Interference Control in Flanker Task?

Arousal involves a physiological and psychological state of being awake or reactive to stimuli. It could be treated also as an energetic property of stimulation. On the basis of previous findings concerning affective state modulation of spatial processing, I predict that arousal impact will follow the Yerkes-Dodson law. To test this hypothesis, 135 words were chosen and divided into three levels of arousal (low, medium and high), whilst controlling for valence, concreteness, frequency of appearance and length. Forty-nine individuals performed a flanker task while reading the words in order to provide a measure of interference control over spatial processing. The accuracy of answers, reaction times and interference effect index were analyzed. It appears that, at the medium arousal level of words, arousal was optimal for interference control, while both low and high arousal impaired the cognitive control of interference caused by competing flanker and target stimuli features.

Affective norms for 1,586 Polish words (ANPW): Duality-of-mind approach.

This article presents valence/pleasantness, activity/arousal, power/dominance, origin, subjective significance, and source-of-experience norms for 1,586 Polish words (primarily nouns), adapted from the Affective Norms for English Words list (1,040 words) and from my own previous research (546 words), regarding the duality-of-mind approach for emotion formation. This is a first attempt at creating affective norms for Polish words. The norms are based on ratings by a total of 1,670 college students (852 females and 818 males) from different Warsaw universities and academies, studying various disciplines in equal proportions (humanities, engineering, and social and natural sciences) using a 9-point Likert Self-Assessment Manikin scale. Each participant assessed 240 words on six different scales (40 words per scale) using a paper-and-pencil group survey procedure. These affective norms for Polish words are a valid and useful tool that will allow researchers to use standard, well-known verbal materials comparable to the materials used in other languages (English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, etc.). The normative values of the Polish adaptation of affective norms are included in the online supplemental materials for this article.

Database of Expressionist, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist paintings: Affective norms for 60 art pieces.

Modern painters' art is not only different from canvas created earlier, but also shows high internal variability. Being aware of the conditions arising from art history, we used paintings from three art movements-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Expressionism, to see if we are able to respond to claims made by art theorists by using methods specific to social sciences, and validate the paintings as stimuli which might evoke different emotional reaction based on the movement they were created in. We wanted to conduct an exploratory analysis comparing the mean assessment of valence, arousal, and dominance among the three art movements. A total of 60 different paintings were selected (20 for each art movement) showing figurative works and visible human figures. They were assessed on five different affective scales: valence, arousal, dominance, origin, and subjective significance with use of Self-Assessment Manikins. The results showed expected differences in affective reactions to Expressionist paintings compared with those of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist ones. Therefore, we provided the very first dataset of emotional stimuli with validated affective norms, categorised by the art movement that they were created in and ready to be used in future experimental studies.

Cognitive Load and Deception Detection Performance.

The ability to detect deception is one of the most intriguing features of our minds. Cognitive load can surprisingly increase the accuracy of detection when there is a substantial load compared to when the detection is performed without cognitive load. This effect was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment, the participants were asked to watch truth/lie videos while completing a concurrent task (N-back in a 3-back version; intuitive processing), providing verbal reasoning after watching each video (deliberative processing), or watching the videos alone (control group). The cognitive load caused by the concurrent task led to a higher accuracy in deception detection compared to the other conditions. In the second experiment, we examined how this effect worked under various amounts of cognitive load. Participants watching truth/lie videos were assigned to one of three experimental conditions (N-back in three versions: 1, 3, and 5-back) or to a control group. The participants in the 3-back and 5-back conditions exhibited a significantly higher accuracy in deception detection than those in the 1-back and control groups. Thus, the effect of increased accuracy in deception detection is due to cognitive load and is related to the amount of cognitive load present.

Predictors of Feeling of Threat Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic, the Distinctive Effects of Automatic vs. Reflective Emotions.

The worldwide pandemic that started in December 2019 was a cause of a great rise in the feeling of threat in society. A feeling of threat and distress can be influenced by the span of emotions experienced by a person, and as it is rather clear, that the situation of pandemic evokes negative emotions, they can range from fear to depression, to even disgust. In this study, we wanted to verify the influence of the negative emotions of automatic origin, related to the well-being and homeostasis of the organism and the negative emotions of reflective origin, which are related to social constructs, on the feeling of threat caused by the pandemic outbreak. We expected automatic emotions to have a greater influence on the feeling of threat. We used an online questionnaire to measure the intensity of negative emotions and the feeling of threat among Polish participants in the time of the early outbreak of the pandemic (March-April 2020). Regression analyses were used to identify the predictors of the feeling of threat. The results show the distinctive effect of automatic and reflective groups of emotions. While automatic emotions always increased the feeling of threat, the reflective emotions suppressed the distress, especially in the group of middle-aged and elderly participants. As reflective emotions are developing in the process of socialization, the observed results could suggest, that young people do not process the situation of the pandemic in reflective categories, which leaves them more worried about the situation. We suggest, that promoting reflective thinking can be helpful in interventions in the cases of anxiety caused by the pandemic, as well as in social communication regarding the topic of the pandemic.

The role of subjective significance, valence and arousal in the explicit processing of emotion-laden words.

Emotional categorisation (deciding whether a word is emotional or not) is a task that employs the explicit analysis of the emotional meaning of words. Therefore, it allows for assessing the role of emotional factors, i.e., valence, arousal, and subjective significance, in emotional word processing. The aim of the current experiment was to investigate the role of subjective significance, a reflective form of activation that is similar to arousal (the automatic form), in the processing of emotional meaning. We applied the orthogonal manipulation of three emotional factors. Thus, we were able to precisely differentiate the effects of each factor and search for interactions between them. We expected valence to shape the late positive complex LPC component, while subjective significance and arousal were expected to shape the P300 and N400 components. We observed the effects of subjective significance throughout the whole span of processing, while the arousal effect was present only in the LPC component. We also observed that amplitudes for N400 and LPC discriminated negative from positive valence. The results showed that all factors included in the analysis should be taken into account while explaining the processing of emotion-laden words; especially interesting is the subjective significance, which was shown to shape processing individually, as well as to come into interaction with valence and arousal.

ERP Analysis Using a Multi-Channel Matching Pursuit Algorithm.

In this study, we propose a new algorithm for analysing event-related components observed in EEG signals in psychological experiments. We investigate its capabilities and limitations. The algorithm is based on multivariate matching pursuit and clustering. It is aimed to find patterns in EEG signals which are similar across different experimental conditions, but it allows for variations in amplitude and slight variability in topography. The method proved to yield expected results in numerical simulations. For the real data coming from an emotional categorisation task experiment, we obtained two indications. First, the method can be used as a specific filter that reduces the variability of components, as defined classically, within each experimental condition. Second, equivalent dipoles fitted to items of the activity clusters identified by the algorithm localise in compact brain areas related to the task performed by the subjects across experimental conditions. Thus this activity may be studied as candidates for hypothetical latent components. The proposed algorithm is a promising new tool in ERP studies, which deserves further experimental evaluations.

Affective Attitudes in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Dynamics of Negative Emotions and a Sense of Threat in Poles in the First Wave of the Pandemic.

For millions of people, the COVID-19 pandemic situation and its accompanying restrictions have been a source of threat and confrontation with negative emotions. The pandemic's universal and long-term character, as well as the ensuing drastic limitation of control over one's life, have made it necessary to work out adaptive strategies that would reduce negative experiences and eventually lead to the restoration of well-being. The aim of this research was to identify strategies that people use in response to a long-term threat that restore affective balance and a subjective sense of security. We registered selected manifestations of affective reactions to the pandemic situation. The researchers focused on the dynamics of changes in the areas of (1) experienced negative emotions (asked in an indirect way) and (2) a subjective feeling of threat regarding the pandemic (in three different contexts: Poland, Europe, and worldwide) during the first phase of the pandemic in Poland. It was expected that both the negative emotions and the sense of threat would decrease with time. In addition, it was anticipated that the physical distance would modify the assessment of the situation as threatening depending on the geographical proximity: in Poland, Europe, and worldwide. We used the mixed quasi-experimental design in the series of four studies conducted by Internet in March, May, June, and July 2020. The intensity of negative emotions and the sense of threat caused by the pandemic situation in Poland, Europe, and worldwide were measured. Despite the objective number of confirmed COVID-19 cases during each of the stages of the study, both the intensity of emotions attributed by participants as well as the feeling of threat were found to have decreased. In addition, surprisingly, a reversed effect of the distance was revealed: namely, a sense of threat experienced towards distant locations (Europe and the world) was found to be more acute when compared with the threat experienced in Poland. The obtained results are interpreted as a manifestation of adaptive perception of the threat that lies beyond one's control, which takes the form of unconscious, biased distortions: unrealistic optimism. The decrease in the intensity of negative emotions explains unrealistic absolute optimism, while the perception of the situation in Poland as less threatening than in Europe and around the world is predicted by unrealistic comparative optimism.

Arousal, subjective significance and the origin of valence aligned words in the processing of an emotional categorisation task.

An emotional categorisation task allows us to study how emotionality is understood and how emotional factors influence decisions. As emotionality is not only the valence but is also composed of activation (arousal and subjective significance) and the type of process needed to produce emotion (origin), we wanted to test the influence of these emotional factors on with a group of stimuli not differing in valence. We predicted that increasing activation levels should lead to increased classification of stimuli as emotional, with a focus on the late processing stages, when explicit word processing occurs, which on the electrophysiological level corresponds to P300, N450 and LPC components. The behavioural results showed that the emotionality of words increased with increasing levels of arousal and subjective significance. Automatically originated words were assessed as more emotional than reflective ones. The amplitude of the N450 component revealed dissociation for subjective significance and origin effects, showing that these two dimensions ascribe distinct properties of emotionality. Finally, the LPC component was susceptible to all affective dimensions used in manipulation. Our study showed that arousal, subjective significance and origin are dimensions of affect that shape the processing of words' emotionality, when the values of valence were aligned among the stimuli.

The Affect Misattribution in the Interpretation of Ambiguous Stimuli in Terms of Warmth vs. Competence: Behavioral Phenomenon and Its Neural Correlates.

Warmth and competence are fundamental dimensions of social cognition. This also applies to the interpretation of ambiguous symbolic stimuli in terms of their relation to warmth or competence. The affective state of an individual may affect the way people interpret the neutral stimuli in the environment. As previous findings have shown, it is possible to alter the perception of neutral social stimuli in terms of warmth vs. competence by eliciting an incidental affect with the use of emotion-laden words. In the current experiment, we expected the valence and origin of an affective state, factors ascribing emotionally laden words, to be able to switch the interpretation of the neutral objects. We have shown in behavioural results that negative valence and reflective origins promote the interpretation of unknown objects in terms of competence rather than warmth. Furthermore, electrophysiological-response-locked analyses revealed differences specific to negative valence while making the decision in the ambiguous task and while executing it. The results of the current experiment show that the usage of warmth and competence in social cognition is susceptible to affective state manipulation. In addition, the results are coherent with the evolutionary perspective on social cognition (valence effects) as well as with predictions of the dual mind model of emotion (origin effects).

Inhibitory control effectiveness can be improved: The role of arousal, subjective significance and origin of words in modified Emotional Stroop Test.

The interference control measured in the Emotional Stroop Task is the phenomenon that gives us an insight into mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions. Especially the role of dimensions of affect can be easily studied with this paradigm. In the current study, we were interested in the role of the complexity of emotional stimuli (origin). We also aimed at searching for activation-like factors that impair (arousal) or improve (subjective significance) the effectiveness of cognitive control. We have used an orthogonal manipulation of all the above dimensions in words. We expected to find the contrastive effects of arousal and subjective significance on reaction times and Event Related Potential's amplitudes. On a behavioural level, we observed the reduction of reaction times with increasing subjective significance of stimuli and reflective origin. We also found a correlation between subjective significance and reduction of amplitude polarisation in the N450 component associated with cognitive control execution effort. This experiment shows that subjective significance has an improving role for cognitive control effectiveness, even when valence, arousal and origin levels are controlled. This guides us to conclude that external stimuli may drive not only disruption of control but also its improvement.

Corrigendum: Affective Norms for 4900 Polish Words Reload (ANPW_R): Assessments for Valence, Arousal, Dominance, Origin, Significance, Concreteness, Imageability and, Age of Acquisition.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01081.].

Interoceptive awareness and beliefs about health and the body as predictors of the intensity of emotions experienced at the beginning of the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is a type of stressful event which might have an impact on psychological state. A prolonged threat of getting a serious, contagious illness is expected to be associated with an increase of negative emotions and, conversely, with a decrease of positive emotions. As the stressor is strongly linked to health and the body, we decided to investigate what types of factors related to body perception and appraisal are associated with different types of reported emotions. The purpose of the study was to verify the associations between three types of variables: interoceptive awareness as described by Mehling and colleagues (2012a, 2018), negative beliefs about health and body, and different types of emotions. METHODOLOGY: A Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire was applied to evaluate interoceptive awareness. The declared emotional state was diagnosed with a list of 20 emotions-divided by valence and origin. Additionally, a list of 10 negative beliefs about health and body was used. The study was held in a correlational schema with 299 subjects recruited via the social media platform Facebook who took part in an online survey. RESULTS: The study revealed that the scales of Self-Regulation and Trusting are primarily associated with negative automatic and reflective emotions and positive automatic emotions. Furthermore, the Self-Regulation, Trusting dimensions of interoceptive awareness predict an intensity of emotions categorised on the basis of valence and origin. In addition, negative beliefs about health and the body provided an adequate explanation of the variance of most of the types of emotions experienced during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Factors related to body perception, such as interoceptive awareness and negative beliefs about health and body provide a significant contribution to explaining emotional state at the beginning of the pandemic.

Can valence and origin of emotional words influence the assessments of ambiguous stimuli in terms of warmth or competence?

People tend to think that emotions influence the way they think in a spectacular way. We wanted to determine whether it is possible to prime the assessments of ambiguous stimuli by presenting emotion-laden words. We did not expect the differences in assessments that depend only on the emotional factors to be particularly large. Participants were presented with words differing in valence and origin of an affective state, but aligned for arousal, concreteness, length and frequency of use. Their first task was to remember a word. While keeping the word in mind, their second task was to guess by intuition whether the symbol was related to certain traits. Participants assessed objects represented by coding symbols on the scales of warmth or competence. We expected positive valence and automatic origin to promote higher ratings in terms of warmth and reflective origin to promote higher ratings in terms of competence. Positive valence appeared to boost assessments in terms of both warmth and competence, while the origin effect was found to be dissociative: automatic origin promoted intensity of warmth assessments and reflective origin intensity of competence assessments. The study showed an existing relation between emotional and social aspects of the mind, and therefore supports the conclusion that both domains may result from dual processes of a more general character.

Event-Related Potential Correlates of Valence, Arousal, and Subjective Significance in Processing of an Emotional Stroop Task.

The present study is the first to measure event-related potentials associated with the processing of the emotional Stroop task (EST) with the use of an orthogonal factorial manipulation for emotional valence, arousal, and subjective significance (the importance of the current experience for goals and plans for the future). The current study aimed to investigate concurrently the role of the three dimensions describing the emotion-laden words for interference control measured in the classical version of the EST paradigm. The results showed that reaction times were affected by the emotional valence of presented words and the interactive effect of valence and arousal. The expected emotional arousal effect was only found in behavioral results for neutrally valenced words. Electrophysiological results showed valence and subjective significance correlated with the amplitude differences in the P2 component. Moreover, the amplitude of the N450 component varied with the level of subjective significance. This study also demonstrated that exploratory event-related potential analysis provides additional information beyond the classical component-based analysis. The obtained results show that cognitive control effects in the EST may be altered by manipulation in the subjective significance dimension.