It is widely accepted that the valence of a word (neutral, positive, or negative) influences lexical processing, yet data from the commonly used lexical decision and emotional Stroop tasks has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the direction of this influence. One critical obstacle to investigating the independent effects of valence is the matching of emotional and neutral stimuli on the lexical, sublexical, and conceptual characteristics known to influence word recognition. The second obstacle is that the cognitive processes which lead to a lexical decision and a colour naming response are unobservable from the response latency measures typically gathered. The present study compiled a set of neutral, positive, and negative words matched triplet-wise on 26 influential characteristics. The novel “mouse tracking” technique was used to analyse the development of responses to these materials in variants of the lexical decision and emotional Stroop task. A conventional key-press emotional Stroop task is also reported. Results revealed a significant processing advantage for positive words over negative and neutral words in the lexical decision task, whereas valence alone did not produce any significant effects in the emotional Stroop task. The discrepancy between the effects of valence across these different tasks is discussed. We also suggest that previous conflicting findings may be confounded by unmatched emotional and neutral stimuli, thus inflating the potential effects of valence.

人们普遍认为，一个词的效价（中性、正面或负面）会影响词汇处理，但来自常用词汇决策和情感 Stroop 任务的数据在这种影响的方向上产生了不一致的发现。研究效价的独立影响的一个关键障碍是情绪和中性刺激对已知影响单词识别的词汇、亚词汇和概念特征的匹配。第二个障碍是导致词汇决定和颜色命名响应的认知过程无法从通常收集的响应延迟测量中观察到。本研究汇编了一组在 26 个有影响力的特征上三重匹配的中性、正面和负面词。新颖的“鼠标跟踪”技术被用于分析在词汇决策和情感 Stroop 任务的变体中对这些材料的反应的发展。还报告了传统的按键情绪 Stroop 任务。结果显示，在词汇决策任务中，正面词比负面和中性词具有显着的加工优势，而单靠效价在情感 Stroop 任务中没有产生任何显着影响。讨论了这些不同任务中效价的影响之间的差异。我们还建议，先前相互矛盾的发现可能会被无与伦比的情绪和中性刺激所混淆，从而夸大了效价的潜在影响。还报告了传统的按键情绪 Stroop 任务。结果显示，在词汇决策任务中，正面词比负面和中性词具有显着的加工优势，而单靠效价在情感 Stroop 任务中没有产生任何显着影响。讨论了这些不同任务中效价的影响之间的差异。我们还建议，先前相互矛盾的发现可能会被无与伦比的情绪和中性刺激所混淆，从而夸大了效价的潜在影响。还报告了传统的按键情绪 Stroop 任务。结果显示，在词汇决策任务中，正面词比负面和中性词具有显着的加工优势，而单靠效价在情感 Stroop 任务中没有产生任何显着影响。讨论了这些不同任务中效价的影响之间的差异。我们还建议，先前相互矛盾的发现可能会被无与伦比的情绪和中性刺激所混淆，从而夸大了效价的潜在影响。讨论了这些不同任务中效价的影响之间的差异。我们还建议，先前相互矛盾的发现可能会被无与伦比的情绪和中性刺激所混淆，从而夸大了效价的潜在影响。讨论了这些不同任务中效价的影响之间的差异。我们还建议，先前相互矛盾的发现可能会被无与伦比的情绪和中性刺激所混淆，从而夸大了效价的潜在影响。