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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning
Published on: January 29, 2020
How valence affects language processing: Negativity bias and mood congruence in narrative comprehension
Giovanna Egidi1, Richard J Gerrig
1Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. g.egidi@gmail.com
Abstract:
The present research examined how positive and negative moods affect readers' understanding of positive and negative story endings. It demonstrated how negativity bias and mood congruence emerge during narrative comprehension. Participants were induced to experience either a positive or a negative mood and then read stories that could have either a positive or a negative ending. In Experiment 1, participants took longer to integrate negative endings than positive endings, independent of their mood. In Experiment 2, participants judged as more surprising those endings that did not match their mood. The present results illustrate that ending valence has strong influence on moment-by-moment reading, but that readers' moods influence expectations for story outcomes once readers reflect on a complete representation of the story.
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