Emotion has always been a sweet spot for psychological research. From its generation and classification, to its relationship with behavior, to current cognitive neuroscience, etc., psychologists are exploring and analyzing it from different perspectives. The veil of emotions seems to be still so hazy, and she always uses tangible and intangible ways to express her looming figure.
Intangible emotions such as time, quality, rights, etc. are also abstract concepts in people's experience, and the generation and representation of this abstract concept have always been hot and difficult issues in the field of cognitive science.
How do people acquire the abstract concept of emotions? Based on differences in cultural norms and inheritances, are there differences in different emotional expressions, and what are the differences? Are there other ways to represent emotions besides the tangible forms of words, facial expressions, and body language in everyday life?
As an intangible abstract concept, is there some mapping between the establishment and representation of emotional concepts, that is, which tangible or intangible concepts are connected to it? Looking back at the history of emotion research, we will find that there are many more questions like this, more debates, and perhaps the most undiscovered doubts.
More than 100 years ago, James Langer emotion theory was proposed. This theory believes that stimulation triggers the activity of the autonomic nervous system, leading to changes in physiological state, and physiological changes produce emotions.
This theory was rejected and denied for a certain period of time because of its "idiosyncratic" nature. However, the long history of psychology's exploration of emotions will always bring together water from different tributaries.
Experimental research based on different perspectives has provided more and more evidence for the James-Lange emotion theory. For example, in recent years, experiments have been carried out from the perspective of the human body - " embodied cognition ". This theory not only provides evidence for a certain theory, but also broadens the perspective of studying behavior, cognition and emotion.
However, there is no shortage of controversy in psychology, whether it is from established theories or newbie perspectives. Psychologists are moving forward in constant denial and controversy to answer various questions.
Based on the abstract nature of emotion concepts, metaphor theory, and embodied cognition perspectives, as well as the inconsistencies between them, this study further explores the different representations of emotional valence in specific spaces.
The most obvious manifestation of the emotional valence of space is in our human language. Whether it is Chinese characters or foreign languages, there are positive or negative connections between words and spatial orientation. For example: in ancient China, " left moved " was often used to express the meaning of "demoted officials", and "right moved" was used to express "promotion". Similar words to
include "downcast", "overjoyed", "elegant" and "vulgar". In English, "rightanswer" means the correct answer, and "right" has a positive meaning; while "twoleftf" eet" to express a person who is clumsy, in which case "left" has a negative connotation.
These examples all illustrate the connection between spatial orientation and emotional words in people's languages. Inspired by language differences, psychologists are also constantly exploring the relationship between spatial orientation and emotional valence. For example, Natale et al. found that subjects associate the left and right sides of the screen with emotional expressions during cognitive processing.
Participants believed that faces presented on the right side of the screen expressed relatively positive emotions than faces presented on the left side of the screen. This shows that using location to express positive or negative emotions is not limited to our language expressions, but this method also exists at the level of people's perception and cognition.
It can be concluded from people's language: people use "right" to express positive things and "left" to express negative things. Of course, apart from something like Na Tale et al.’s related research on horizontal space and emotions, and there are also related studies on vertical space and emotions.
Meier et al. used the spatial Stroop paradigm to allow subjects to make judgments about positive words and negative words presented on the screen (top/bottom). The results showed that compared to positive words presented at the bottom of the screen, subjects responded faster to positive words presented at the top of the screen; while the opposite was true for negative words.
This shows that the representation of praise and blame in people's minds is associated with fixed upper and lower orientation attributes. They associate the vertical space "up" with positive things, and the "down" with negative things. This shows that there is a connection between location words and emotions in people's cognitive processing system.
is based on the "right is good and the left is bad" effect of right-handers and people discovered by previous research on left and right space, and the "left is good and right is bad" effect of left-handers and people. This study will first conduct a confirmatory study on the "right is good and the left is bad" effect for right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect for left-handers. Second, the factors influencing these two effects are explored.
Finally, based on the different explanation theories of spatial emotional valence proposed by predecessors in psychology, we verify the explanation of these two effects by the embodied theory of emotion; and try to explain these two effects with the polarity difference hypothesis.
Experiment 1: Using emotional cartoon pictures, which is different from previous experimental materials, to verify previous research results - the "right is good and the left is bad" effect for right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect for left-handers. In addition, explore the feasibility of the polarity difference hypothesis in explaining the "right is good and the left is bad" effect for right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect for left-handers. The experimental results of
found that the "right is good and the left is bad" effect for right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect for left-handers are not always established. The study found that regardless of whether they were right-handed or left-handed subjects, their discrimination of negative cartoon pictures was affected by their left and right positions; but their discrimination of positive cartoon pictures was not affected by their left and right positions.
means: right-handers have a "left-bad" effect, but there is no "right-good" effect; left-handers have a "right-bad" effect, but there is no "left-good" effect. In addition, the polarity difference hypothesis’ explanation of the difference in emotional valence between left and right spaces is different from its explanation of the emotional valence in vertical space, but it can be used as a reference.
Experiment 2: Since the results of Experiment 1 are inconsistent with previous research results, Experiment 2 will further explore the influencing factors that lead to poor results. That is: whether the distance from the cartoon picture to the center of the screen will affect the experimental results.
In addition, exploring the "right is good and left is bad" effect of right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect of left-handers is based on their relatively simple classification of left and right sides; it is also a hierarchical arrangement. The experimental results of
prove that the "right is good and left is bad" effect for right-handers and the "left is good and right is bad" effect for left-handers are related to the distance from the stimulus presentation position to the center point.
In addition, the "left bad" effect of right-handers and the "right bad" effect of left-handers are based on their relatively simple classification of left and right sides; rather than a hierarchical ordering. This is consistent with the polarity difference hypothesis.
Experiment 3: Based on the experimental results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, Experiment 3 adopted the GO-NO/GO experimental paradigm, using positive words and negative words in Chinese as experimental materials. The variable "distance" was further refined and the results of Experiment 2 were tested. The results showed that right-handers have a "left-bad" effect but not a "right-good" effect.
However, there is neither a "left bad" effect nor a "right good" effect among left-handed subjects. This is different from previous studies, and also different from Experiments 1 and 2. The "left-bad" effect produced by right-handed subjects is based on their simple classification of different types of words, rather than strict hierarchical ordering, which is consistent with the polarity difference hypothesis.
Comprehensive analysis of experimental results
Through three experiments, the discrimination of emotional stimuli at different horizontal spatial locations by left-handed and right-handed subjects was explored.
According to the research results of Experiment 1, it was only found that right-handers have a "left-bad" effect and left-handers have a "right-bad" effect, which is different from previous studies. Most previous studies have confirmed that right-handers have a "right is good and left is bad" effect, while left-handers have a "left is good and right is bad" effect.
For example, Casasanto et al., through the placement of cartoon pictures by right-handed and left-handed subjects, found that right-handed subjects are more likely to place good pictures on the right box, while left-handed subjects are just the opposite.
Brunyé et al. found that right-handed subjects had better recall of the location of positive events in the right area of the map and the location of negative events in the left area of the map, while left-handed subjects had better recall of the location of positive events in the left area of the map and the location of negative events in the right area of the map. In the
study, it was only found that the left and right spatial positions are related to the type of negative emotions, that is, right-handers are more likely to associate negative emotions with the left space; while left-handers are more likely to associate negative emotions with the right space. Most previous studies have confirmed the relationship between positive emotions and left and right space.
Pi Keyou’s research on the discrimination of different emotional gestures by different handedness found that when the body discriminates and responds to positive emotional gestures, the average reaction time of the right hand button is relatively lower than the average reaction time of the left hand button, but the difference between the two does not reach a significant level.
Whether it is a right-handed or a left-handed subject, the interaction between emotion, position and distance is not significant. When the distance is close, the interaction between emotion and location reaches marginal significance. According to the polarity difference theory proposed by Lakens et al., it is believed that there are four key structural dimensions when people respond to stimuli from stimuli at different spatial locations.
Each of these four dimensions has its own positive and negative poles. Lakens believes that the division of "positive" and "negative" in each dimension is based on relatively simple classifications.
Therefore, the interaction between emotional type and left and right spatial position, resulting in the "right good, left bad" effect or "left good, right bad" effect does not follow a certain hierarchical order, but is a relatively simple left-right classification.
