The role of activation charge in an emotional categorisation task for words: insight from the perspective of a dual process theory of the activation mechanisms

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe role of activation (arousal and subjective significance) was investigated for word processing in an explicit emotional judgement task using a 3 × 3 manipulation. We expected to find dissociative effects for both factors. The behavioural results showed that the fraction of words perceived as emotional increases with increasing arousal or subjective significance. The electrophysiological (EEG) results showed that both factors influence ERP amplitudes. General effects of subjective significance were found for early (60–120 ms and 120–250 ms, low subjective significant stimuli evoked higher amplitude than other conditions) and late (350–490 ms, high subjective significant stimuli evoked higher amplitude than other conditions) time ranges. Localised arousal effects were found in 250–350 ms and 350–490 ms time ranges at posterior (amplitude for high arousing stimuli was less positive than for other conditions) and left frontal ROIs (diverse pattern). Localised subjective significance effects were found for the 350–490 ms time range at the posterior ROIs (amplitude for high subjective significant stimuli was more positive than for other conditions). The results of this study suggest that the effects of arousal reported in earlier studies might account for a more complex form of activation that was recently postulated, namely subjective significance.