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Intensity affects the preconscious processing of emotionally toned words in college students

2000; Volume: 19; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s12144-000-1019-3

2168-5819

Laura L. Snodgrass, Kathleen Harring,

Face Recognition and Perception

The detectability of high and low intensity emotionally toned words was investigated in a signal detection paradigm using college students as subjects. Individually set thresholds kept word identification to an average of 16 percent. The results indicate a complicated pattern of interactions among intensity, gender, positive or negative tone, and hemispheric presentation. Greater detectability was found for right hemisphere presentations and low intensity words. In addition, positive words showed greater detectability than negative words. The findings are discussed in terms of factors that affect automatic attitude activation.