The role of selective attention in Chinese emotional word processing: evidence from event-related potentials

Abstract

Objectives This study seeks to explore the interaction between ignored valence and attended valence in the processing of Chinese emotion words. Methods The experimental materials utilized in this study consisted of Chinese emotion words. Participants were instructed to observe the words and press a key when presented with target words. Additionally, the electroencephalographic responses of the participants were recorded during the experiment. Results The results showed that emotional nontarget words elicited greater amplitude of the N170 in the attend-emotion words block compared to the attend-neutral words block. Negative nontarget words produce greater amplitude of the late posterior positivity compared to positive nontarget words. In addition, emotional nontarget words were influenced by both ignored and attended valence, whereby positive nontarget words resulted in larger amplitude of the N170 component in the attend-negative block compared to the attend-neutral block. The modulation pattern for negative nontarget words was evident on the left hemisphere. Conclusion The findings suggest that emotional nontarget words received greater attentional resources in the attend-emotion words block during the early stages of processing, compared to the attend-neutral word block. Additionally, during the later stages of processing, negative nontarget words were more likely to be processed than positive nontarget words. Overall, these results provide support for the evaluation space model.