| Abstract: | Forty-eight subjects (24 men, 24 women) responded to 20-word stimuli presented by a microcomputer program that recorded each subject's response latency and response to each stimulus word. Emotionality of stimulus word and presence/absence of an observer were independently varied. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant difference in latencies attributable to the emotionality of the stimulus word, whereas neither the presence/absence of the observer nor the interaction effect was significant. The results suggest the possible use of latency analysis as a tool in situations where an objective, statistical, and easily obtainable evaluative measurement of the level of emotionality of various verbal stimuli is desired. |
