Dataset: Arousal, subjective significance and the origin of neutrally valenced words in the processing of an emotional categorisation task (E6)

An emotional categorisation task
allows us to study how emotionality is understood and how emotional factors
influence decisions. Of particular interest is the processing of emotionality
in neutrally valenced words, because 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 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 in neutrally valenced
stimuli.