Emotional Values of Words: Relations with Concreteness and Vividness of Imagery

Abstract

Prior research reports that concrete words are more likely to be associated with specific affective stimuli than abstract words and that the higher the imagery values are the higher will be the emotional values. Four lists of words (concrete-pleasant, concrete-unpleasant, abstract-pleasant, abstract-unpleasant) were presented to 120 students instructed to score each word on three scales: vividness of imagery, concreteness, and emotionality. A correlation of −.60 was obtained between concreteness and emotionality and of −.47 for emotionality with imagery. In addition, a positive correlation obtained between concreteness and emotionality both with concrete (.13) and abstract (.24) words and between vividness of imagery of words and emotionality in concrete words (.34) and abstract words (.61). It is concluded correlations between ratings of concreteness and emotionality and between ratings of vividness and emotionality are positive.