Effect of Semantic Relevance and Emotional Valence on Associative Word Recognition
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Abstract :
Abstract: The aim of this study was to inves-tigate the effect of semantic relevance and emotional valence on associative word recogni-tion. To do so, single design with a post-test was used. The population consisted of all students in Semnan University in 2013. Participants were 80 undergraduate students (43 males and 37 females) from the two faculties of psychology and education, and engineering of Semnan Univer-sity, who were chosen via conventionce method. By making use of SuperLab software, partici-pants completed a computer test that offered pairs of words and also Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). Analysis of covari-ance of repeated measurements was used. Findings indicated the effect of semantic rele-vance and emotional valence on associative words recognition (F=7/64, P<0/001). Whereas pairs of neutral words with semantic relation were presented, the highest recognition was ob- served, pairs of emotional words with no seman-tic relation brought about lowest recognition rate. The results showed that the semantic rela-tionship between pairs of words, compared to the emotional valence of them (positive or ne-gative), had a greater impact on recognition.