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Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It. / Yao, Bo; Vasiljevic, Milica; Weick, Mario et al.
In: PLoS ONE, Vol. 8, No. 9, e75000, 25.09.2013.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Yao, B, Vasiljevic, M, Weick, M, Sereno, ME, O'Donnell, PJ & Sereno, SC 2013, 'Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It', PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 9, e75000. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075000

APA

Yao, B., Vasiljevic, M., Weick, M., Sereno, M. E., O'Donnell, P. J., & Sereno, S. C. (2013). Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It. PLoS ONE, 8(9), Article e75000. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075000

Vancouver

Yao B, Vasiljevic M, Weick M, Sereno ME, O'Donnell PJ, Sereno SC. Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It. PLoS ONE. 2013 Sept 25;8(9):e75000. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075000

Author

Yao, Bo ; Vasiljevic, Milica ; Weick, Mario et al. / Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It. In: PLoS ONE. 2013 ; Vol. 8, No. 9.

Bibtex

@article{1c33a08eb0034daba35c928297c98eeb,
title = "Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It",
abstract = "Size is an important visuo-spatial characteristic of the physical world. In language processing, previous research has demonstrated a processing advantage for words denoting semantically “big” (e.g., jungle) versus “small” (e.g., needle) concrete objects. We investigated whether semantic size plays a role in the recognition of words expressing abstract concepts (e.g., truth). Semantically “big” and “small” concrete and abstract words were presented in a lexical decision task. Responses to “big” words, regardless of their concreteness, were faster than those to “small” words. Critically, we explored the relationship between semantic size and affective characteristics of words as well as their influence on lexical access. Although a word{\textquoteright}s semantic size was correlated with its emotional arousal, the temporal locus of arousal effects may depend on the level of concreteness. That is, arousal seemed to have an earlier (lexical) effect on abstract words, but a later (post-lexical) effect on concrete words. Our findings provide novel insights into the semantic representations of size in abstract concepts and highlight that affective attributes of words may not always index lexical access.",
author = "Bo Yao and Milica Vasiljevic and Mario Weick and Sereno, {Margaret E.} and O'Donnell, {Patrick J.} and Sereno, {Sara C.}",
year = "2013",
month = sep,
day = "25",
doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0075000",
language = "English",
volume = "8",
journal = "PLoS ONE",
issn = "1932-6203",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "9",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Semantic Size of Abstract Concepts: It Gets Emotional When You Can't See It

AU - Yao, Bo

AU - Vasiljevic, Milica

AU - Weick, Mario

AU - Sereno, Margaret E.

AU - O'Donnell, Patrick J.

AU - Sereno, Sara C.

PY - 2013/9/25

Y1 - 2013/9/25

N2 - Size is an important visuo-spatial characteristic of the physical world. In language processing, previous research has demonstrated a processing advantage for words denoting semantically “big” (e.g., jungle) versus “small” (e.g., needle) concrete objects. We investigated whether semantic size plays a role in the recognition of words expressing abstract concepts (e.g., truth). Semantically “big” and “small” concrete and abstract words were presented in a lexical decision task. Responses to “big” words, regardless of their concreteness, were faster than those to “small” words. Critically, we explored the relationship between semantic size and affective characteristics of words as well as their influence on lexical access. Although a word’s semantic size was correlated with its emotional arousal, the temporal locus of arousal effects may depend on the level of concreteness. That is, arousal seemed to have an earlier (lexical) effect on abstract words, but a later (post-lexical) effect on concrete words. Our findings provide novel insights into the semantic representations of size in abstract concepts and highlight that affective attributes of words may not always index lexical access.

AB - Size is an important visuo-spatial characteristic of the physical world. In language processing, previous research has demonstrated a processing advantage for words denoting semantically “big” (e.g., jungle) versus “small” (e.g., needle) concrete objects. We investigated whether semantic size plays a role in the recognition of words expressing abstract concepts (e.g., truth). Semantically “big” and “small” concrete and abstract words were presented in a lexical decision task. Responses to “big” words, regardless of their concreteness, were faster than those to “small” words. Critically, we explored the relationship between semantic size and affective characteristics of words as well as their influence on lexical access. Although a word’s semantic size was correlated with its emotional arousal, the temporal locus of arousal effects may depend on the level of concreteness. That is, arousal seemed to have an earlier (lexical) effect on abstract words, but a later (post-lexical) effect on concrete words. Our findings provide novel insights into the semantic representations of size in abstract concepts and highlight that affective attributes of words may not always index lexical access.

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0075000

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0075000

M3 - Journal article

VL - 8

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 9

M1 - e75000

ER -