Does an induced emotional state affect how we resolve lexical ambiguity?

Payne, Lauren (2018) Does an induced emotional state affect how we resolve lexical ambiguity? Oxford Brookes University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Research has shown that the mood or emotional state of an individual can affect how lexical ambiguity is resolved. This study focused on a particular group of words that sound the same but differ in spelling and meaning, namely homophones. Homophones often have a valenced meaning (i.e. negative or positive) and a neutral meaning, for example die/dye and dear/deer, this enables the role of emotions to be investigated. Sixty participants, aged 18-25, were randomly assigned to a control group or experimental group. In the experimental groups, either a negative or positive mood was induced and maintained through affect-related images and valenced sound clips, respectively. Using a word association task in which homophones were presented orally, participants chose one of two words they most associated in meaning with the target homophone. Participants completed an Affect Grid pre and post-experiment. An interaction between the participant’s induced mood and choice of homophone valence was found, but significance was only reached for the positive mood group; they were more likely to choose the positive related meaning of a positive/neutral homophone, and the neutral meaning of a negative/neutral homophone. The results indicate that the mood induction for the positive mood group influenced the choice of meaning in the word association task. This differs from previous findings and possible explanations are discussed. However, this study adds to the growing body of work showing that mood can have an important effect in resolving lexical ambiguity.