How do valence and meaning interact? The contribution of semantic control

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psycholinguistics
• Neurolinguistics

Background:

• The hub-and-spoke model posits conceptual representations arise from a central hub interacting with modality-specific features (spokes).
• These features include valence (positive/negative), visual, and auditory information.
• Valence congruency may enhance conceptual word linking, while meaning-valence conflicts might engage semantic control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how valence congruency and semantic relatedness influence conceptual word linking.
• To examine the role of semantic control processes in processing valence information.
• To assess these effects in healthy adults and patients with semantic aphasia.

Main Methods:

• Two-alternative forced-choice tasks were used to match probe words to target words based on meaning or valence.
• Experiment 1: Timed responses in healthy young adults.
• Experiment 2: Decision accuracy in semantic aphasia patients with impaired semantic retrieval.

Main Results:

• Semantically related targets improved valence matching; related distractors hindered performance.
• Valence congruency facilitated semantic decision-making.
• Semantic aphasia patients showed impaired valence matching, especially with related distractors, indicating reliance on semantic control for valence retrieval.

Conclusions:

• Automatic access to word meaning influences valence processing.
• Word valence is retrieved even when task-irrelevant, affecting semantic judgment efficiency.
• Selective retrieval of valence information depends on semantic control mechanisms, particularly in individuals with semantic impairments.