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.     

Relations between life satisfaction, adjustment to illness, and emotional distress in a sample of men with ischemic cardiopathy

Fifty-two men who had suffered a first episode ischemic heart disease reported their degree of life satisfaction, the strategies they used to adjust to the illness, and the symptoms of anxiety and depression they felt. The multiple regression analyses carried out indicated that emotional distress was associated with a lower level of life satisfaction. In the analyses of anxiety symptoms, the use of negative adjustment strategies was also a significant predictor. Lastly, a significant Life Satisfaction x Type of Adjustment interaction was obtained. According to this, the patients who felt more satisfaction with their lives used more positive strategies to adjust to the illness and fewer negative ones, than the group of patients who were less satisfied. In conclusion, life satisfaction predicts emotional wellbeing of patients with ischemic heart disease and it enhances the implementation of appropriate strategies to cope with the disease. Moreover, although life satisfaction has been considered a stable measure, we suggest it may change as the experience of illness limits individuals' important goals.     

Implicit theories about interrelations of anger components in 25 countries

We were interested in the cross-cultural comparison of implicit theories of the interrelations of eight anger components (antecedents, body sensations, cognitive reactions, verbal expressions, nonverbal expressions, interpersonal responses, and primary and secondary self-control). Self-report scales of each of these components were administered to a total of 5,006 college students in 25 countries. Equivalence of the scales was supported in that scales showed acceptable congruence coefficients in almost all comparisons. A multigroup confirmatory factor model with three latent variables (labeled internal processes, behavioral outcomes, and self-control mechanisms) could well account for the interrelations of the eight observed variables; measurement and structural weights were invariant. Behavioral outcomes and self-control mechanisms were only associated through their common dependence on internal processes. Verbal expressions and cognitive reactions showed the largest cross-cultural differences in means, whereas self-control mechanisms scales showed the smallest differences. Yet, cultural differences between the countries were small. It is concluded that anger, as measured by these scales, shows more pronounced cross-cultural similarities than differences in terms of both interrelations and mean score levels.     

Gender in Spanish Daily Newspapers

The purpose of this study was to examine the portrayal of women and men in a Spanish daily newspaper and to find whether there were gender differences among the authors of the articles in said newspaper. A content analysis was conducted of 4,060 articles and advertisements from 24 issues of a randomly selected, large-circulation, Spanish newspaper. Men were found to be more commonly featured in the articles, photographs, and advertisements than women, and they would usually be soldiers, athletes or high-rank businessmen much more often than women were. Furthermore, we determined that the reporters writing the articles were more likely to be men than women. And, in addition, men were more likely to be cited as sources than women.     

Priming effects on the N400 in the affective priming paradigm with facial expressions of emotion

We studied the effect of facial expression primes on the evaluation of target words through a variant of the affective priming paradigm. In order to make the affective valence of the faces irrelevant to the task, the participants were assigned a double prime–target task in which they were unpredictably asked either to identify the gender of the face or to evaluate whether the word was pleasant or unpleasant. Behavioral and electrophysiological (event-related potential, or ERP) indices of affective priming were analyzed. Temporal and spatial versions of principal components analyses were used to detect and quantify those ERP components associated with affective priming. Although no significant behavioral priming was observed, electrophysiological indices showed a reverse priming effect, in the sense that the amplitude of the N400 was higher in response to congruent than to incongruent negative words. Moreover, a late positive potential (LPP), peaking around 700 ms, was sensitive to affective valence but not to prime–target congruency. This pattern of results is consistent with previous accounts of ERP effects in the affective priming paradigm that have linked the LPP with evaluative priming and the N400 with semantic priming. Our proposed explanation of the N400 priming effects obtained in the present study is based on two assumptions: a double check of affective stimuli in terms of valence and specific emotion content, and the differential specificities of facial expressions of positive and negative emotions.     

The neural circuitry supporting goal maintenance during cognitive control: a comparison of expectancy AX-CPT and dot probe expectancy paradigms

Goal maintenance is an aspect of cognitive control that has been identified as critical for understanding psychopathology according to criteria of the NIMH-sponsored CNTRICS (Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) and Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiatives. CNTRICS proposed the expectancy AX-CPT, and its visual-spatial parallel the dot probe expectancy (DPX), as valid measures of the cognitive and neural processes thought to be relevant for goal maintenance. The goal of this study was to specifically examine the functional neural correlates and connectivity patterns of both goal maintenance tasks in the same subset of subjects to further validate their neural construct validity and clarify our understanding of the nature and function of the neural circuitry engaged by the tasks. Twenty-six healthy control subjects performed both the letter (AX) and dot pattern (DPX) variants of the CPT during fMRI. Behavioral performance was similar between tasks. The 2 tasks engaged the same brain networks including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsal parietal regions, supporting their validity as complementary measures of the goal maintenance construct. Interestingly there was greater engagement of the frontal opercular insula region during the expectancy AX-CPT (letter) and greater functional connectivity between the PFC and medial temporal lobe in the DPX (dot pattern). These differences are consistent with differential recruitment of phonological and visual-spatial processes by the two tasks and suggest that additional long-term memory systems may be engaged by the dot probe version.