语言标识对情绪体验的影响

The Modulation of Verbal Labeling on Emotional Experience

本研究通过两个实验考察了语言标识对个体情绪体验的调节作用。实验1探讨了中性标识对不同类型的情绪体验的影响,结果发现与韩文字符标识相比,中性词语标识时被试对负性图片的消极情绪体验程度显著降低。实验2进一步探讨了不同情绪意义的词语标识对负性情绪体验的影响,结果发现与中性标识相比,负性或正性标识时被试对负性图片的消极体验程度显著减弱。结果表明了语言标识对负性情绪体验具有显著的调节作用,并且标识效应的产生依赖于词汇语义信息的通达。

With the development of cognitive and emotional neuroscience, it has been realized that cognitive and emotional processes mutually interact with each other. The present research aimed to examine how language processing, one of the important cognitive processes of human beings, modulates individual＇s emotional experience. This study included two behavioral experiments with participation of 56 Mandarin-speaking undergraduate students in total. In the experiments, emotional pictures （selected from International Affective Picture System） and verbal labels of the pictures were presented to the participants simultaneously. Participants were required to pay attention to both pictures and verbal labels and report their experience to emotional pictures on a Likert 9-point scale （1 meant extremely negative and 9 meant extremely positive）. In experiment 1, we investigated whether verbal labeling can modulate emotional experience. A three （negative, positive and neutral emotional pictures） by two （meaningful verbal label in Chinese and meaningless verbal label in Korean） within-subject design were conducted. To rule out the confusion caused by the affective meanings of words, only words with neutral meanings were used as labels. For instance, a negative picture with bloody and mutated face was labeled as ＂face＂. We predicted that if verbal labeling can modulate emotional experience, a significant effect should be observed between the two verbal labeling conditions in some or all conditions of emotional pictures. Our results showed that participants reported significantly less negative experience when a negative picture was paired with a meaningful Chinese verbal label than a meaningless Korean verbal label. However, no significant differences were found in the conditions of neutral and positive pictures. These results suggest that verbal labeling, a process of accessing word meaning, might be able to produce modulation effects on individual＇s emotional experience, in particular for reducing the negative emotional experience. In experiment 2, we further explored whether the modulation effects of verbal labeling on negative emotional experience were impacted by its affective meaning. We manipulated three verbal labeling conditions （negative, positive and neutral verbal labels in Chinese） and paired all labeling conditions with negative pictures. For example, a picture with a patient in the bed would be labeled as ＂Suffer＂, ＂Hope＂ or ＂People＂. We expected that if affective meaning of verbal labeling can modulate the experience of negative emotions, we should observe differences in the emotional experience of participants among the three labeling conditions. Our results showed that the subjective experience of participants to negative pictures was significantly decreased in the negative labeling and the positive labeling condition than in the neutral labeling condition. In other words, the affective meanings of verbal labels remarkably decreased individual＇s negative emotional experience. The results from experiment 2 squares with our hypothesis in experiment 1 and further consolidates our suggestion that verbal labeling produces modulation effects on individual＇s negative emotional experience through the process of accessing word meaning. Taken together, we investigated the influence of verbal labeling on different types of emotional experience （experiment 1）, and the influence of verbal labeling with different affective meanings on the same （negative） emotional experience （experiment 2）. Experiment 1 suggests that the verbal labeling does modulate emotional experience, in particular for reducing negative emotional experience. Experiment 2 suggests that verbal labels with affective meanings can further significantly reduce negative emotional experience than verbal labels with neutral affective meanings. The current study produced relatively solid evidence of the modulation effects of higher cognitive process （language processing） on individual＇s affective experience. Hence it contributes significantly to the field of investigating the intimate interactions between emotional and cognitive systems advocated by Pessoa （2009）.