Semantic Priming: Influence of Emotional Valence Words on Cognitive Processing

SEMANTIC PRIMING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
METHOD........................................................................................................................................5
RESULTS........................................................................................................................................6
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................9
LIMITATIONS..............................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Cognitive psychology has been evolving regularly and the connection between stimulus,
attention, consciousness and brain function still remains a highly studied but controversial area.
The reading and processing of words can highly depend on whether a person has had a prior
conscious perception of them or they perceive them for the first time. Conscious processing,
however, is traditionally known as the extent to which important stimuli is given selective
attentive space (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963). Consciously, when a person is processing symbolic
stimuli such as words, it requires an extensive cortical process. Word processing starts in the
ventral visual pathway then processing to the lexical and lastly through semantic access (Gaillard,
Del Cul, Naccache, Vinckier, Cohen &Dehaene, 2006). Visual consciousness and the rate words
are detected depend on perceptual awareness, individual personality traits, lexical decision, and
working memory. These processes are found to interact with each other during this conscious
process.
Processing of stimuli mostly occurs when a person is conscious and aware as opposed to
unconscious one. When being exposed to words influences a response to another word without
conscious guidance or intent, priming occurs. However, if the words are semantically related
such as table and chair, or unrelated like table and tiger, semantic priming occurs. In visual word
recognition, semantic priming is used as a powerful tool to research cognitive processes relating
to memory, language, and attention. Some words, however, are not prime– target pairs but the
human mind constitutes them as related. Examples of these kinds of words are book and worm or
sky and blue. The priming effect has been proven to occur for word pairs that are associatively
related, categorically related or simply look or sound similar (Okubo & Ogawa, 2013).
Further when the unconscious processing of the stimuli that is received becomes
automatic, the process is termed as semantic activation. The semantic activation occurs at the
deepest level of processing, as, Neely and Khan (2001), in their critical re-evaluation highlight
semantic activation is indeed automatic. Words automatically activate their meanings once read
slightly, and the semantic activation is unaffected by the intention for it to occur and by the
amount and quality of the intentional resources allocated to it.
The masked semantic priming paradigm is often referred to as the ‘sandwich’ technique.
This is due to the prime word being sandwiched between the pattern mask and the targeted
stimulus (Forster, n.d.). Research in this area by Merikle, Smilek & Eastwood (2000) concludes
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that stimulus information can be visually perceived even when there is no awareness of
perceiving it. This is further supported by a study by Kinoshita & Norris (2012) who highlighted
that this is related to the belief that an ‘unconscious’ prime will tap into automatic processes and
can, therefore, be used to identify the obligatory representations and processes that support
reading. Presentation of a masked prime word automatically causes a lexical entry to be opened,
if the same word is encountered a second time straight after the masked prime word, the lexical
entry remains opened thus, having little effect on cognitive load (Bodner &Stalinski, 2008).
However, depending on the multitude of information consciously thrown at our working
memory, it can exceed a person’s capacity to process, thus overwhelming the brain and causing
an effect on cognitive processing. This is explained as a cognitive load. This refers to the amount
of mental activity imposed on our semantic memory at any one time. Though the semantic
memory can overload, Neuroscience has mapped a cognitive pathway that demonstrates
unconscious processing, underlying emotional experience and maps out the road to unconscious
processing. Even if stimuli have not been perceived consciously, the sub cortical pathway,
otherwise known as the thalamus – amygdale connection may unconsciously perceive the word
and its meaning (Mack & Rock, 1998).
Consequently, unconsciously perceived stimuli can have an impact on affective state, which
in turn, is affected by a person’s personality traits. A person’s choices and preferences can have
an automatic influence on a participant’s judgement on words whether positive or negative. A
study conducted by Scott, Mogg & Bradley (2001), highlights that participants with a higher
level of depression showed enhanced masked semantic priming of words surrounding depression
as opposed to words related to happiness. Furthermore, four studies conducted by Rogers &
Revelle (1998), discovered that personality factors influenced judgment when the choice was
between positive and negative words. They concluded that mood factor highly influenced
judgement and perception. Their research showed, however, that their cognitive load was not
affected when choosing the word. Participants choose negative valance words a lot quicker than
positive valance words.
The present research will examine the influence of emotional valence words on a semantic
priming level. It will review the priming effect at conscious and unconscious cognitive
processing and how these processes relate to emotional valence words. This research will look at
three hypotheses that will support literature review:
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