Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning
Published on: January 29, 2020
Language and the perception of emotion
Kristen A Lindquist1, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Eliza Bliss-Moreau
1Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. lindqukr@bc.edu
Abstract:
Three studies assessed the relationship between language and the perception of emotion. The authors predicted and found that the accessibility of emotion words influenced participants' speed or accuracy in perceiving facial behaviors depicting emotion. Specifically, emotion words were either primed or temporarily made less accessible using a semantic satiation procedure. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were slower to categorize facial behaviors depicting emotion (i.e., a face depicting anger) after an emotion word (e.g., "anger") was satiated. In Study 3, participants were less accurate to categorize facial behaviors depicting emotion after an emotion word was satiated. The implications of these findings for a linguistically relative view of emotion perception are discussed.
Related Concept Videos
Factors Affecting Perception
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Non-Verbal Cues
Language and Cognition
Labeling Emotion
Introducing Social Perception
Emotional Expression
Universal Facial Expressions
Psychologist Paul Ekman identified seven basic...
