Studying emotion effects in language

Established emotion frameworks are built on dimensions like valence/evaluation (pleasant/good vs. unpleasant/bad). Ambiguity about how to interpret such dimensions led Wurm and Vakoch (2000) to develop an alternative framework built on the idea of adaptiveness for survival. In this conceptualization, connotation is coded on two behaviorally relevant dimensions: danger and usefulness for human survival. These dimensions interact in predicting the speed and accuracy of stimulus processing. Increasing danger predicts faster and more accurate responding, but only for stimuli relatively lower on usefulness. In the context of higher usefulness, increasing danger predicts slower and less accurate responding. As conceptualized in this framework, the effects of emotional connotation are far more widespread than is assumed by existing frameworks. This interaction has been found for spoken as well as printed stimuli, in word-recognition situations that do not involve priming, and with stimuli that are not even emotion words. These findings have been interpreted as evidence for embodiment in language processing insof ar as they suggest a conflict between competing approach/withdraw behavioral responses. These results also point to more recent work on survival processing and adaptive memory, and may be evidence of the operation of a much more general cognitive organizing principle.