Kamil K. Imbir

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.

Toward a Human Emotions Taxonomy (Based on Their Automatic vs. Reflective Origin)

Certain emotional processes “bypass the will” and even awareness, whereas others arise due to the deliberative evaluation of objects, states, and events. It is important to differentiate between the automatic versus reflective origins of emotional processes, and sensory versus conceptual bases of diverse negative and positive emotions. A taxonomy of emotions based on different origins is presented. This taxonomy distinguishes between negative and positive automatic versus reflective emotions. The automatic emotions are connected with the (a) homeostatic and (b) hedonistic regulatory mechanisms. The reflective emotions—uniquely human—are described in reference to deliberative processes and appraisals based on two types of conceptual and verbalized evaluative standards: (a) ideal self-standards and (b) general, axiological standards of good and evil.

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

In studies that combine understanding of emotions and language, there is growing demand for good-quality experimental materials. To meet this expectation, a large number of 4905 Polish words was assessed by 400 participants in order to provide a well-established research method for everyone interested in emotional word processing. The Affective Norms for Polish Words Reloaded (ANPW_R) is designed as an extension to the previously introduced the ANPW dataset and provides assessments for eight different affective and psycholinguistic measures of Valence, Arousal, Dominance, Origin, Significance, Concreteness, Imageability, and subjective Age of Acquisition. The ANPW_R is now the largest available dataset of affective words for Polish, including affective scores that have not been measured in any other dataset (concreteness and age of acquisition scales). Additionally, the ANPW_R allows for testing hypotheses concerning dual-mind models of emotion and activation (origin and subjective significance scales). Participants in the current study assessed all 4905 words in the list within 1 week, at their own pace in home sessions, using eight different Self-assessment Manikin (SAM) scales. Each measured dimension was evaluated by 25 women and 25 men. The ANPW_R norms appeared to be reliable in split-half estimation and congruent with previous normative studies in Polish. The quadratic relation between valence and arousal was found to be in line with previous findings. In addition, nine other relations appeared to be better described by quadratic instead of linear function. The ANPW_R provides well-established research materials for use in psycholinguistic and affective studies in Polish-speaking samples.

Origin of Emotion Effects on ERP Correlates of Emotional Word Processing: The Emotion Duality Approach

We distinguish two evaluative systems which evoke automatic and reflective emotions. Automatic emotions are direct reactions to stimuli whereas reflective emotions are always based on verbalized (and often abstract) criteria of evaluation. We conducted an electroencephalography (EEG) study in which 25 women were required to read and respond to emotional words which engaged either the automatic or reflective system. Stimulus words were emotional (positive or negative) and neutral. We found an effect of valence on an early response with dipolar fronto-occipital topography; positive words evoked a higher amplitude response than negative words. We also found that topographically specific differences in the amplitude of the late positive complex were related to the system involved in processing. Emotional stimuli engaging the automatic system were associated with significantly higher amplitudes in the left-parietal region; the response to neutral words was similar regardless of the system engaged. A different pattern of effects was observed in the central region, neutral stimuli engaging the reflective system evoked a higher amplitudes response whereas there was no system effect for emotional stimuli. These differences could not be reduced to effects of differences between the arousing properties and concreteness of the words used as stimuli.

Effects of Valence and Origin of Emotions in Word Processing Evidenced by Event Related Potential Correlates in a Lexical Decision Task

This paper presents behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) correlates of emotional word processing during a lexical decision task (LDT). We showed that valence and origin (two distinct affective properties of stimuli) help to account for the ERP correlates of LDT. The origin of emotion is a factor derived from the emotion duality model. This model distinguishes between the automatic and controlled elicitation of emotional states. The subjects’ task was to discriminate words from pseudo-words. The stimulus words were carefully selected to differ with respect to valence and origin whilst being matched with respect to arousal, concreteness, length and frequency in natural language. Pseudo-words were matched to words with respect to length. The subjects were 32 individuals aged from 19 to 26 years who were invited to participate in an EEG study of lexical decision making. They evaluated a list of words and pseudo-words. We found that valence modulated the amplitude of the FN400 component (290–375 ms) at centro-frontal (Fz, Cz) region, whereas origin modulated the amplitude of the component in the LPC latency range (375–670 ms). The results indicate that the origin of stimuli should be taken into consideration while deliberating on the processing of emotional words.

Subjective Significance Shapes Arousal Effects on Modified Stroop Task Performance: A Duality of Activation Mechanisms Account

Activation mechanisms such as arousal are known to be responsible for slowdown observed in the Emotional Stroop and modified Stroop tasks. Using the duality of mind perspective, we may conclude that both ways of processing information (automatic or controlled) should have their own mechanisms of activation, namely, arousal for an experiential mind, and subjective significance for a rational mind. To investigate the consequences of both, factorial manipulation was prepared. Other factors that influence Stroop task processing such as valence, concreteness, frequency, and word length were controlled. Subjective significance was expected to influence arousal effects. In the first study, the task was to name the color of font for activation charged words. In the second study, activation charged words were, at the same time, combined with an incongruent condition of the classical Stroop task around a fixation point. The task was to indicate the font color for color-meaning words. In both studies, subjective significance was found to shape the arousal impact on performance in terms of the slowdown reduction for words charged with subjective significance.

Use of Affective Priming to Measure the Implicit Self-Reference Effect:

A modified suboptimal affective priming paradigm was used to provide an implicit measure of the self-reference effect (Implicit Self-Reference effect, ISR). Hexagrams described to participants as “symbols of different human characteristics” served as judgment target stimuli. Participants (14 women, 12 men; age range = 21 to 25 years) were asked to judge the extent to which the characteristic symbolized by each hexagram was self-relevant to them. Twelve photographs of faces displaying either a neutral expression, disgust, or joy were used as suboptimal primes for each presentation and exposed for 17 msec. Results indicated that participants judged hexagrams affectively primed with faces showing disgust as having significantly lower reference to the self than hexagrams primed with joyful faces.

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 718 Polish Short Texts (ANPST): Dataset with Affective Ratings for Valence, Arousal, Dominance, Origin, Subjective Significance and Source Dimensions.

Affective sciences are of burgeoning interest and are attracting more and more research attention. Three components of stimuli meaning have traditionally been distinguished: valence (degree of pleasantness), arousal (degree of intensity of sensations), and dominance (degree of control over sensations). Recently, another three dimensions have been introduced to measure qualities connected to the emotion–duality model: origin (the main component originating in the heart or in the mind), subjective significance (the degree of the subjective goal’s relevance), and source (the location of the stimuli evoking the state). All six affective dimensions were assessed in our study of 718 Polish short texts (sentences of 5–23 words and 36–133 characters in length) describing situations or states in a way that can be referenced to an individual’s experience. Assessments were carried out by 148 psychology students (all women for 108 sentences) and 2,091 students of different faculties (social science, engineering, life science, and science) from Warsaw colleges and universities (1,061 women and 1,030 men for all 718 sentences). Assessing sets of sentences for emotional response is especially useful for researchers interested in emotion elicitation through the use of a phrase such as “imagine that …” or by simply reading emotionally charged material that is more complex and that provides better context than single pictures or words.

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.