Psychological Experiment: EFFECT ON EMOTIONAL

AND NEUTRAL WORDS ON RESPONSE TIME

Submitted to: Akib Ul Huque

Submitted by-
Jannatul Nayeem
NSU ID: 1611482030
PSY101L.2
Dept. of Marketing
SBE, NSU, Dhaka-1229
 Abstract

Psychologists ran multiple experiments to find the correlation between human memory and
emotion. They tried to figure out the difference in response time for different words. This report
pictures a practical experiment of effect of emotional, and neutral worlds on response time. A set
of words comprising both emotional, and neutral words were taken to conduct the experiment on
a random subject while he was untold specifically that which words are emotional, and which
ones are neutral. The experiment result aligns with the psychological theory about effect of
emotional and neutral words on response time. The participant took comparatively longer time to
respond for emotional words rather than for neutral words. Proper data set, consent forms, and
required forms are presented in this report for the purpose of transparency, ethical justification,
and legal obligations.
 Introduction
Emotion: Emotion is a strong drive, originated through mental processes that is associated
with multiple nodes and memories which direct a person for a particular course of action. It
comprises three aspects of human behavior-preparing us for actions, shaping our future behavior
and helping us interact more effectively with others.

Emotional words: In this experiment I used 15 emotional words. To define emotional words
we can set the line as those words that have anything to do with anger, happiness, sorrow or any
feeling of certain arousal.

Response (reaction) time: Response (reaction) time indicates how much time a participant
takes to reply against one word (Emotional/Neutral). A stopwatch was used to record the timing
for more accuracy.

Previous work/research in the area: Different psychologist conducted experiment to

investigate the time difference for response of different types of words. Most experimenters
came up with conclusion that an individual takes longer reaction or response time for emotional
words than neutral words (Jaeger, A., Bourscheid, F. R., Santos, M. P. F., & Stein, L., 2017)
Objective of the study
–The objective of the study was to investigate whether response time differed between
emotional, and neutral words
.
Rationale (i.e. theoretical and practical implications) of the study

–The reaction time for emotional words might take longer to respond because, the subject might
find a connectional with his/her own memory.
 Three Theories of Emotion

Explanation of the theories with the study

Emotions are the presentation of judgments about certain situation. According to the theory of
James-Lange, psychological changes happen before the emotional expression. Therefore, when
the participant is asked to respond an emotional word, he/she is expected to take some time to
relate or find connection with memory, and take longer time. Similarly, according to Cannon-
Bard, a stimulating event will trigger physical and psychological state. Here, emotional words
are the stimulations that are expected to trigger the psychological state and take longer time to
respond for a participant (Jaeger, A., Bourscheid, F. R., Santos, M. P. F., & Stein, L., 2017).

Hypothesis
The response time will take longer emotional words than for neutral words to respond.
 Method
Participants
For conducting the experiment, I have conveniently chosen a random sample, and ran the
experiment with the selected set of words.
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Socio-Economic Class: Upper Middle
Materials
– 15 Emotional and 15 neutral words

– Stop watch (a mobile phone) Small pieces of paper

– Data sheet (30 Words: 15 Emotional, and 15 Neutral; shuffled in a set)

1. Honeymoon 2. Song 3. Independence 16. Classroom 21. Cupboard 26. Night

4. Darling 5. Flower 6. Kiss 17. Chair 22. Iron 27. Suitcase

7. Rage 8. Mother 9. Hug 18. Watch 23. Paper 28. Umbrella

10. Dance 11. Death 12. Friend 19. Book 24. House 29. Spectacles

13. Joy 14. Eid 15. Love 20. Bag 25. Night 30. Pen
 Design and Procedure

First, I welcomed the participant. Then, I provided information sheet, taking consent, and
respond to questions about the study to the participant. I gave giving both written and verbal
instructions about how the study will be carried out and the taking of the participant. Afterwards,
I provided further clarification if needed. Within subject design, I asked the words one my one
(Stimuli: 15 neutral and 15 emotional words). Each word is printed on a small piece of paper.The
words are randomly presented, one at a time. The participant is asked to answer a word in
response to the word presented. The response was not an antonym. Response is written below the
stimulus word. I started a stop watch as soon as a stimulus is presented. Then, I stopped the
stopwatch as soon as the participant will finish answering a response. The response time was
recorded on the back of the paper. At the end of the study, I gave the participant a paper to write
his/her experiences about the study (e.g. did he/she like it; did he/she face any difficulty while
doing the task, etc. Then, I thanked the participant for giving time and effort into the task.
Finally, I transferred all response time to the data sheet
 Data processing and Statistical
analysis

Data processing and statistical analysis

– Total reaction time:
• Emotional words: 58.74 Seconds.

• Neutral Words: 54.46 Seconds

• Total: 113.2 Seconds

As I recorded the response time, first I added the reaction time separately for 15 emotional
words, and 15 neutral words. In total, I got 58.74 seconds for the Emotional words which I
expected to be longer than emotional words. Then, I got 54.46 seconds for Neutral words. And,,
in total the participant took 113.2 seconds to respond all total 30 words.
– Mean reaction time:
• Emotional Words: 3.916 Seconds per word

• Neutral Words: 3.63067 Seconds per word

• Total: 3.773 Seconds per word

Finally, I divided both results by 15 each. Therefore, the participant took 3.916 seconds on
average to respond to each emotional word whereas he took 3.63067 seconds to respond to each
neutral word.
 RESULTS TYPE TOTAL RESPONSE TIME MEAN RESPONSE TIME (IN
OF WORDS (IN SECOND) SECOND)
NEUTRAL WORDS 54.46 3.6307
EMOTIONAL 58.74 3.916
WORDS

The horizontal line in the graph says about the type of words and the vertical axis represents the
time taken to respond. The blue cube represents the time taken for neutral words, and the red
cube represents time taken for emotional words which is greater in size.
 Discussion

From the experiment I’ve found that the subject took an average of 3.916 seconds and 3.6307
seconds for emotional and neutral words to respond respectively. That means, he took slightly
longer time duration for emotional words than neutral words which supports the hypothesis.
There was an interesting finding while executing the experiment that the subject took
significantly longer time duration for the emotional word-“Love” While asking about it, he came
up with reasoning that he had a bitter past about love which made him take longer time duration.
My findings supports the hypothesis that align the literature of the topic. The limitations of this
study was that this experiment was conducted early morning and the level of answering could
have been different than usual, again the place where the experiment was conducted was not
fully supported as of a psychological laboratory. The additional question generated through this
study was that someone might take the same amount of time for a neutral word as of an
emotional word if he/she has more exposure to related field. For example-study. So, further
research might be conducted to explore and justify this situation.
References
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Appendix