What distinguishes emotion-label words from emotion-laden words? The characterization of affective meaning from a multi-componential conception of emotions.

Past research that distinguishes between affective and neutral words has predominantly relied on two-dimensional models of emotion focused on valence and arousal. However, these two dimensions cannot differentiate between emotion-label words (e.g., fear) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death). In the current study, we aimed to determine the unique affective characteristics that differentiate emotion-label, emotion-laden, and neutral words. Therefore, apart from valence and arousal, we considered different affective features of multi-componential models of emotion: action, assessment, expression, feeling, and interoception. The study materials included 800 Spanish words (104 emotion-label words, 340 emotion-laden words, and 356 neutral words). To examine the differences between each word type, we carried out a Principal Component Analysis and a Random Forest Classifier technique. Our results indicate that these words are characterized more precisely when the two-dimensional approach is combined with multi-componential models. Specifically, our analyses revealed that feeling, interoception and valence are key features in accurately differentiating between emotion-label, emotion-laden, and neutral words.

What makes a word a good representative of the category of "emotion"? The role of feelings and interoception.

The words we use to describe emotions vary in terms of prototypicality; that is, some of these words may be more representative of the semantic category of emotion than others (e.g., anger refers more clearly to an emotion than boredom). Based on a multicomponential conception of emotions, the aim of the present study was to examine the contribution of several variables to emotion prototypicality. Some of those variables are related to the distinct components of emotions: evaluation, action, body expression, internal body sensations (interoception), and feelings. Other variables are related to the concreteness/abstractness distinction: sensory experience, social interaction, thought, and morality. We collected ratings for these variables for a large set of words (1,286) which varied in emotion prototypicality. A regression analysis revealed that the variables that most contributed to emotion prototypicality were feelings and interoception. Furthermore, a factor analysis identified two underlying factors: socioemotional polarity and emotional experience. The scores of each word in both factors were used to create a two-dimensional space and a density plot which provides relevant information about the organization of emotion concepts in memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional Prototypicality Ratings for 636 Chinese Words: A Database of Chinese Words with Affective Information.

Exemplars of concepts vary in their degree of prototypicality. This is also true for emotion concepts. This study presents prototypicality ratings for a large set of Chinese words. The database contains 636 potential Chinese emotion words (i.e., words that directly express particular emotions, like " happy" and " sad"), from different grammatical categories. Native Chinese speakers rated the words in terms of emotional prototypicality. The database also contains values for valence, arousal, and emotionality. The analyses of the ratings revealed that 502 out of 636 words had a high prototypicality value (value equal to or above three on a 1-to-5 scale), the most prototypical words being negative and high-arousal words. The analyses also indicated that the emotional prototypicality of a word was positively related to both arousal and emotionality, and negatively related to valence. Among these variables, arousal was the most important contributor. Similar results have been found in studies conducted in other languages. This will be a useful resource for researchers interested in studying emotion words in the Chinese language and for those interested in cross-linguistic comparisons.

The bright side of words: Norms for 9000 Spanish words in seven discrete positive emotions.

In recent years, assumptions about the existence of a single construct of happiness that accounts for all positive emotions have been questioned. Instead, several discrete positive emotions with their own neurobiological and psychological mechanisms have been proposed. Of note, the effects of positive emotions on language processing are not yet properly understood. Here we provide a database for a large set of 9000 Spanish words scored by 3437 participants in the positive emotions of awe, contentment, amusement, excitement, serenity, relief, and pleasure. We also report significant correlations between discrete positive emotions and several affective (e.g., valence, arousal, happiness, negative discrete emotions) and lexico-semantic (e.g., frequency of use, familiarity, concreteness, age of acquisition) characteristics of words. Finally, we analyze differences between words conveying a single emotion ("pure" emotion words) and those denoting more than one emotion ("mixed" emotion words). This study will provide researchers a rich source of information to do research that contributes to expanding the current knowledge on the role of positive emotions in language. The norms are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21533571.v2.

Subjective age of acquisition norms for 1604 English words by Spanish L2 speakers of English and their relationship with lexico-semantic, affective, sociolinguistic and proficiency variables.

Psycholinguistic studies have shown that there are many variables implicated in language comprehension and production. At the lexical level, subjective age of acquisition (AoA), the estimate of the age at which a word is acquired, is key for stimuli selection in psycholinguistic studies. AoA databases in English are often used when testing a variety of phenomena in second language (L2) speakers of English. However, these have limitations, as the norms are not provided by the target population (L2 speakers of English) but by native English speakers. In this study, we asked native Spanish L2 speakers of English to provide subjective AoA ratings for 1604 English words, and investigated whether factors related to 14 lexico-semantic and affective variables, both in Spanish and English, and to the speakers' profile (i.e., sociolinguistic variables and L2 proficiency), were related to the L2 AoA ratings. We used boosted regression trees, an advanced form of regression analysis based on machine learning and boosting algorithms, to analyse the data. Our results showed that the model accounted for a relevant proportion of deviance (58.56%), with the English AoA provided by native English speakers being the strongest predictor for L2 AoA. Additionally, L2 AoA correlated with L2 reaction times. Our database is a useful tool for the research community running psycholinguistic studies in L2 speakers of English. It adds knowledge about which factors-linked to the characteristics of both the linguistic stimuli and the speakers-affect L2 subjective AoA. The database and the data can be downloaded from: https://osf.io/gr8xd/?view_only=73b01dccbedb4d7897c8d104d3d68c46 .

CROWD-5e: A Croatian psycholinguistic database of affective norms for five discrete emotions.

The present study introduces affective norms for a set of 3022 Croatian words on five discrete emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. The words were rated by 1239 Croatian native speakers. Each participant rated 251 or 252 words for one discrete emotion on a five-point Likert scale. The analyses revealed a significant relationship between discrete emotions, emotional dimensions (valence and arousal), and other psycholinguistic properties of words. In addition, small sex differences in discrete emotion ratings were found. Finally, the analysis of the distribution of words among discrete emotions allowed a distinction between "pure" words (i.e., those mostly related to a single emotion) and "mixed" words (i.e., those related to more than one emotion). The new database extends the existing Croatian affective norms collected from a dimensional conception of emotions, providing the necessary resource for future experimental investigation in Croatian within the theoretical framework of discrete emotions.

Prevalence norms for 40,777 Catalan words: An online megastudy of vocabulary size.

In this study, we present word prevalence data (i.e., the number of people who know a given word) for 40,777 Catalan words. An online massive visual lexical decision task involving more than 200,000 native speakers of this language was carried out. The characteristics of the participants as well as those of the words which mostly influence word knowledge were examined. Regarding the participants, the analysis of the data revealed that their age was the main factor influencing vocabulary size, followed by their educational level and other variables such as the number of languages spoken and their level of proficiency in Catalan. Concerning the words, by far the most determining factor was lexical frequency, with a minor influence of both length and the size of the orthographic neighborhood. These data mainly agree with those reported in other languages in which the same variables have been analyzed (Dutch, English, and Spanish, thus far). Therefore, the list is increased with Catalan, a language which, due to its use in an essentially bilingual context, is of special interest to researchers interested in the field of bilingualism and second language acquisition.

Unsaid thoughts: Thinking in the absence of verbal logical connectives.

Combining two thoughts into a compound mental representation is a central feature of our verbal and non-verbal logical abilities. We here approach this issue by focusing on the contingency that while natural languages have typically lexicalised only two of the possible 16 binary connectives from formal logic to express compound thoughts-namely, the coordinators and and or-some of the remainder appear to be entertainable in a non-verbal, conceptual representational system-a language of thought-and this suggests a theoretical split between the "lexicalisation" of the connectives and the "learnability" of invented words corresponding to unlexicalised connectives. In a visual world experiment aimed at tracking comprehension-related as well as reasoning-related aspects of the capacity to represent compound thoughts, we found that participants are capable of learning and interpreting a made-up word standing for logic's NAND operator, a result that indicates that unlexicalised logical connectives are not only conceptually available, but can also be mapped onto new function words, as in the case of coordinators, or connectives, a class of words that do not usually admit new coinages.

The predictors of general knowledge: Data from a Spanish megastudy.

Studies on sociodemographic data and crystallized intelligence have often struggled to recruit enough participants to achieve sufficient validity. However, the advent of the internet now allows this problem to be solved through the creation of megastudies. Yet, this methodology so far has only been used in studies on vocabulary size, while general knowledge, another key component of crystallized intelligence, remains unexamined. In the present study, regression models were used to examine the impact of sociodemographic variables-gender, age, years of study and socioeconomic status-on general knowledge scores. The sample comprised 48,234 participants, each of whom answered 60 general knowledge questions, their data being fully available online. Men were found to score higher than women in general knowledge. Years of study and socioeconomic status acted as strong and weak positive predictors, respectively. Age acted as a strong positive predictor until the age of 50, where it became progressively detrimental. These results are discussed relative to other studies on crystallized intelligence, highlighting the need to study each of its components individually.

Oligonucleotides Containing 1-Aminomethyl or 1-Mercaptomethyl-2-deoxy-d-ribofuranoses: Synthesis, Purification, Characterization, and Conjugation with Fluorophores and Lipids.

Oligonucleotide conjugates are widely used as therapeutic drugs, gene analysis, and diagnostic tools. A critical step in the biologically relevant oligonucleotide conjugates is the design and synthesis of functional molecules that connect oligonucleotide with ligands. Here, we report the synthesis and application for oligonucleotide functionalization of novel tethers based on aminomethyl and mercaptomethyl sugar derivatives. Starting from a common cyano sugar precursor, three novel phosphoramidites have been prepared in the two α- and ß-anomeric forms. The mercaptomethyl sugar was protected with the S-acetyl group, while two different protecting groups have been developed for the aminomethyl sugar. These two protecting groups are orthogonal, as they can be removed independently using photolysis or ammonolysis. This combination allowed the introduction of two different ligands in a single oligonucleotide.

EmoPro - Emotional prototypicality for 1286 Spanish words: Relationships with affective and psycholinguistic variables.

We present EmoPro, a normative study of the emotion lexicon of the Spanish language. We provide emotional prototypicality ratings for 1286 emotion words (i.e., those that refer to human emotions such as "fear" or "happy"), belonging to different grammatical categories. This is the largest data set for this variable so far. Each word was rated by at least 20 participants, and adequate reliability and validity rates for prototypicality scores were found. We also provide new affective (valence, arousal, emotionality, happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger) and psycholinguistic (Age-of-Acquisition, frequency and concreteness) ratings for those words without prior data in the extant literature, and analyze which of the given variables contribute the most to prototypicality. A factor analysis on the affective and psycholinguistic variables has shown that prototypicality loads in a factor associated to the emotional salience of words. Furthermore, a regression analysis reveals a significant role of both dimensional and discrete- emotion-related variables, as well as a modest effect of AoA and frequency on the prediction of prototypicality. Cross-linguistic comparisons show that the pattern obtained here is similar to that observed in other languages. EmoPro norms will be highly valuable for researchers in the field, providing them with a tool to select the most representative emotion words in Spanish for their experimental (e.g., for a comparison with emotion-laden words, such as "murder" or "party") or applied studies (e.g., to examine the acquisition of emotion words/concepts in children). The full set of norms is available as supplementary material.

SUBTLEX-CAT: Subtitle word frequencies and contextual diversity for Catalan.

SUBTLEX-CAT is a word frequency and contextual diversity database for Catalan, obtained from a 278-million-word corpus based on subtitles supplied from broadcast Catalan television. Like all previous SUBTLEX corpora, it comprises subtitles from films and TV series. In addition, it includes a wider range of TV shows (e.g., news, documentaries, debates, and talk shows) than has been included in most previous databases. Frequency metrics were obtained for the whole corpus, on the one hand, and only for films and fiction TV series, on the other. Two lexical decision experiments revealed that the subtitle-based metrics outperformed the previously available frequency estimates, computed from either written texts or texts from the Internet. Furthermore, the metrics obtained from the whole corpus were better predictors than the ones obtained from films and fiction TV series alone. In both experiments, the best predictor of response times and accuracy was contextual diversity.

Affective and concreteness norms for 3,022 Croatian words.

This study presents subjective ratings for 3,022 Croatian words, which were evaluated on two affective dimensions (valence and arousal) and one lexico-semantic variable (concreteness). A sample of 933 Croatian native speakers rated the words online. Ratings showed high reliabilities for all three variables, as well as significant correlations with ratings from databases available in Spanish and English. A quadratic relation between valence and arousal was observed, with a tendency for arousal to increase for negative and positive words, and neutral words having the lowest arousal ratings. In addition, significant correlations were found between affective dimensions and word concreteness, suggesting that abstract words have a tendency to be more arousing and emotional than concrete words. The present database will allow experimental research in Croatian, a language with a considerable lack of psycholinguistic norms, by providing researchers with a useful tool in the investigation of the relationship between language and emotion for the South-Slavic group of languages.

Emotional Content and Source Memory for Language: Impairment in an Incidental Encoding Task.

Research into the effects of emotion on source memory (i.e., memory for certain contextual details of a stimulus, such as its location, color, or temporal context) has yielded inconsistent findings. Mather and her co-workers tried to account for such inconsistencies by pointing out the relevance of the characteristics of the feature examined. Specifically, they distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic features (Mather, 2007) and between goal-relevant and goal-irrelevant information (Mather and Sutherland, 2011). In the current study, we investigated source memory for language, which is an intrinsic feature or words. Catalan-Spanish bilinguals were tested in three experiments involving a recognition task in which they were asked about the language of presentation (Catalan or Spanish) of emotional and neutral words. In Experiments 1 and 2, source memory for negative and neutral words was assessed. In Experiment 1 participants performed an intentional encoding task in which language was a goal-relevant feature. In Experiment 2, they did an incidental encoding task in which language was also goal-relevant. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 but negative words were replaced by positive words. The results showed an impairment in source memory for the language of presentation of emotional words when the encoding task was incidental, but not when it was intentional. Such impairment was observed with both negative words and positive words. The results are discussed in relation to the proposals of Mather and co-workers and point to the relevance of modulating factors, such as the intentional/incidental nature of encoding.

EmoFinder: The meeting point for Spanish emotional words.

We present here emoFinder ( http://usc.es/pcc/emofinder ), a Web-based search engine for Spanish word properties taken from different normative databases. The tool incorporates several subjective word properties for 16,375 distinct words. Although it focuses particularly on normative ratings for emotional dimensions (e.g., valence and arousal) and discrete emotional categories (fear, disgust, anger, happiness, and sadness), it also makes available ratings for other word properties that are known to affect word processing (e.g., concreteness, familiarity, contextual availability, and age of acquisition). The tool provides two main functionalities: Users can search for words matched on specific criteria with regard to the selected properties, or users can obtain the properties for a set of words. The output from emoFinder is highly customizable and can be accessed online or exported to a computer. The tool architecture is easily scalable, so that it can be updated to include word properties from new Spanish normative databases as they become available.

Exploring the Effects of Visual Frame and Matching Direction on the Vertical-Horizontal Illusion.

The work presented here uses an adjustment method to test the vertical-horizontal illusion across four different configurations: a cross-shape, an L-shape, an inverted-T and a rotated-T. We examine the modulatory role of the variables visual frame and direction of the adjustment on the illusory effect. Two experiments were performed, one with rectangular and one with curvilinear visual frames. Our data show that in both experiments, the size of the expected illusion increases from the cross-shape to the L-shape and from the L-shape to the inverted-T, where it reaches its maximum. In the rotated-T, the illusion reverses reaching a significant effect in the opposite direction. This pattern of results appears consistently across different experimental conditions, although the variability in the amount of illusory effect seems to be modulated by the intervention of the two variables examined. A dissection of the vertical-horizontal illusion has been carried out in terms of a two-factor explanation - anisotropy and bisection - interacting in different ways across configurations.

Is pupillary response a reliable index of word recognition? Evidence from a delayed lexical decision task.

Previous word recognition studies have shown that the pupillary response is sensitive to a word's frequency. However, such a pupillary effect may be due to the process of executing a response, instead of being an index of word processing. With the aim of exploring this possibility, we recorded the pupillary responses in two experiments involving a lexical decision task (LDT). In the first experiment, participants completed a standard LDT, whereas in the second they performed a delayed LDT. The delay in the response allowed us to compare pupil dilations with and without the response execution component. The results showed that pupillary response was modulated by word frequency in both the standard and the delayed LDT. This finding supports the reliability of using pupillometry for word recognition research. Importantly, our results also suggest that tasks that do not require a response during pupil recording lead to clearer and stronger effects.

Moved by words: Affective ratings for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories.

The two main theoretical accounts of the human affective space are the dimensional perspective and the discrete-emotion approach. In recent years, several affective norms have been developed from a dimensional perspective, including ratings for valence and arousal. In contrast, the number of published datasets relying on the discrete-emotion approach is much lower. There is a need to fill this gap, considering that discrete emotions have an effect on word processing above and beyond those of valence and arousal. In the present study, we present ratings from 1,380 participants for a set of 2,266 Spanish words in five discrete emotion categories: happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. This will be the largest dataset published to date containing ratings for discrete emotions. We also present, for the first time, a fine-grained analysis of the distribution of words into the five emotion categories. This analysis reveals that happiness words are the most consistently related to a single, discrete emotion category. In contrast, there is a tendency for many negative words to belong to more than one discrete emotion. The only exception is disgust words, which overlap least with the other negative emotions. Normative valence and arousal data already exist for all of the words included in this corpus. Thus, the present database will allow researchers to design studies to contrast the predictions of the two most influential theoretical perspectives in this field. These studies will undoubtedly contribute to a deeper understanding of the effects of emotion on word processing.

Clustering words to match conditions: an algorithm for stimuli selection in factorial designs / Agrupar palabras para igualar condiciones: un algoritmo para la selección de palabras en diseños factoriales

With the increasing refinement of language processing models and the new discoveries about which variables can modulate these processes, stimuli selection for experiments with a factorial design is becoming a tough task. Selecting sets of words that differ in one variable, while matching these same words into dozens of other confounding variables is time consuming and error prone. To assist experimenters in this thankless task, we present a simple method to perform it with little effort. The method is based on Kmeans clustering as a way to detect small and tight clusters of words that match in the desired variables. We have formalized the procedure into an algorithmic format, that is, a series of easy-to-follow steps. In addition, we also provide an SPSS syntax that helps in choosing the correct size of the clustering. After reviewing the theory, we present a worked example that will guide the reader through the complete procedure. The dataset of the worked example is available as a supplementary material to this paper (AU)

Con el creciente refinamiento de los modelos de procesamiento del lenguaje y los nuevos hallazgos sobre qué variables pueden modular dichos procesos, la selección de palabras para experimentos de diseño factorial se está convirtiendo en una tarea cada vez más ardua. Seleccionar conjuntos de palabras que difieren en una variable pero que están igualadas en una decena de posibles variables extrañas, lleva mucho tiempo y está sujeto a errores. Para ayudar a los experimentadores en esta desagradecida tarea, presentamos un método sencillo que permite realizarla con poco esfuerzo. El método se basa en el agrupamiento de Kmedias para identificar conjuntos pequeños y compactos de palabras igualadas en las variables deseadas. El procedimiento ha sido formalizado en un algoritmo, esto es, una serie de pasos concretos y sencillos de seguir. Además, también aportamos la sintaxis en SPSS para ayudar en la selección del número adecuado de agrupaciones. Tras una revisión de la teoría, presentamos un ejemplo práctico que guiará al lector a través del procedimiento completo. El conjunto de datos del ejemplo se encuentra disponible como material complementario a este artículo (AU)

Spanish norms for affective and lexico-semantic variables for 1,400 words.

Studies of semantic variables (e.g., concreteness) and affective variables (i.e., valence and arousal) have traditionally tended to run in different directions. However, in recent years there has been growing interest in studying the relationship, as well as the potential overlaps, between the two. This article describes a database that provides subjective ratings for 1,400 Spanish words for valence, arousal, concreteness, imageability, context availability, and familiarity. Data were collected online through a process involving 826 university students. The results showed a high interrater reliability for all of the variables examined, as well as high correlations between our affective and semantic values and norms currently available in other Spanish databases. Regarding the affective variables, the typical quadratic correlation between valence and arousal ratings was obtained. Likewise, significant correlations were found between the lexico-semantic variables. Importantly, we obtained moderate negative correlations between emotionality and both concreteness and imageability. This is in line with the claim that abstract words have more affective associations than concrete ones (Kousta, Vigliocco, Vinson, Andrews, & Del Campo, 2011). The present Spanish database is suitable for experimental research into the effects of both affective properties and lexico-semantic variables on word processing and memory.