How does emotion affect how easily we recognise words in our language?

What is it about?

Words can evoke emotional reaction even when presented without context (e.g., war is considered a highly negative word). However it is still unclear how emotion can affect the speed with which we can recognise a word we hear or read. Previous research has yielded inconsistent results; however, much of the previous work has not taken into account many other factors that can affect how easily we can recognise words. For example, words are easier to recognise when they occur in the language more frequently, or when they're more familiar to us, when we can more easily imagine their referent, or when we have learnt them earlier in childhood. In this study we have taken into account all the variables that can affect how easily we can recognise words, and tested what effect the emotional valence of a word can have after controlling for effects of the other factors. We found that both positive and negative words are recognised faster than neutral words.

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Why is it important?

This work furthers our understanding of how we can recognise words, and provides important constraints to models of word recognition. It indicates that emotional associations of words can facilitate how quickly we can recognise these words, suggesting that emotion is an essential component of the way we represent word meanings in our mind.