North South University

Department of History & Philosophy

PSY101L: Introduction to Psychology-Lab

Semester: Spring 2025

Section: 47

Reaction Time to Emotional and Neutral Words

Submitted To: Submitted by:

Dr. Shamim F. Karim Zannatul Fariha Nishu

(SFK) Professor of ID: 2111940630

Psychology North South Email: zannatul.nishu@northsouth.edu

University
 Abstract

On a daily basis, people are exposed to hundreds of different words, yet they do not all

respond in the same way. The answer differs from word to word and even from person to person,

making it a contentious issue. A single-subject design experiment was conducted at North South

University to study this contested issue. The kind of term, either emotional or neutral, was the

independent variable (IV) in the experiment, while the participant's reaction time was the

dependent variable (DV). One adult male undergraduate student at North South University took

part in the trial. The subject was required to answer immediately after hearing each word from

the assigned word list, which included 15 emotional words (EW) and 15 neutral words (NW).

The experimenter recorded the participant's response time for each word. The investigation

revealed that the reaction time of emotional words was longer than that of neutral words.
 INTRODUCTION

Sensation and perception are the two most significant parts of this investigation. The

former is defined as "a physical emotion or experience caused by something that happens to or

comes into contact with the body" (Oxford Dictionary, 2018) . We see and feel our surroundings

through the five major human senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell. Perception is

defined as "the ability to see, hear, or become aware of anything through the senses," and this is

how the two concepts - sensation and perception - combine in this experiment. The experiment

"Reaction Time to Neutral and Emotional Words" is concerned with the "auditory sense" among

others; it highlights the feature of human beings reacting to particular phrases while

communicating with one another, as well as how or why individuals react in such ways.

Research has been undertaken on the reaction time in response to various sorts of words.

According to each research, the reaction time varies based on the word type. According to a

theory of some researchers, emotional words take less time to respond to than neutral words.

According to this model, the cognitive processing of emotional information tends to be

faster than the cognitive processing of neutral information because the former is essential to

survival and to fight or flight responses (Lang, 1990) . A statistical report found on a website

also agrees with the theory. The report says that emotional words process faster in the human

brain than neutral words. The statistics revealed that emotional words, whether positive or

negative, are processed faster than neutral words. This effect appears to be categorical rather than

graded, is not modulated by emotional arousal, and is not limited to words explicitly referring to

emotions. The authors suggest that emotional connotations facilitate processing due to the

grounding of words' meanings in emotional experience (Vinson, 2013) . Another group of

researchers said the opposite. According to them, neutral words take less time to respond.

According to this account, emotional

stimuli yield greater attention engagement during the initial stages of cognitive processing. Such

early attention engagement takes time and effort to be subsequently terminated and consequently

slows down response times (John, 1991). Kanske and Kotz (2011) investigated the influence of

emotional valence (positive or negative) on reaction time to words presented to participants. The

study found that emotional words, regardless of valence, were responded to more quickly than

neutral words. Schacht and Sommer (2009) examined the effect of arousal on reaction time to

words, finding that high-arousal words were responded to more quickly than low-arousal words.

Similarly, Scott et al. (2019) found that positive and negative high-arousal words were responded

to more rapidly than low-arousal neutral words.

Other studies have explored the mechanisms behind the effect of emotional words on

reaction time. Some have suggested that the effect is due to the amygdala activation, a brain

structure involved in processing emotions (John, 1991). Others have proposed that the effect is

related to the level of attention paid to emotional stimuli. Wilhelm Wundt experimented in

research to compare the impact of emotional and neutral phrases on reaction times. The results

demonstrated that individuals responded to emotional words more slowly than neutral terms

(Sommer, 2009).

Neutral Words

Humans use speech to interact with one another. They successfully interact by composing

words and expressing emotion with their hands, faces, or bodies. A word is defined as "a single

distinctively significant element of speech or writing," even though each word has its meaning

and consequences. While some are entertaining, others are hostile. The next experiment will

concentrate on "Emotional" and "Neutral" words. A word is a linguistic unit that speakers of the
language can use to refer to a distinct type of word, including neutral and particular units of

meaning. There are many different previous emotional words. Approaches or words that are

nonjudgmental and do not trigger memories, feelings, and experiences are all called neutral

words. For example, classroom, cupboard, suitcase, etc.

Emotional Word

Words with an emotional impact are known as emotional words. Words that stir up old

emotions, memories, and experiences are referred to as emotional words. These words are

closely related to our emotions and sentiments. Such words evoke various emotions and

sentiments in each person. It varies more from person to person. For example, honeymoon,

darling, kiss, etc. Emotional words could be positive, such as "home" and "love", and also

negative, such as "death" and "rage".

According to a theory of some researchers, emotional words take less time to respond to

than neutral words. The cognitive processing of emotional information tends to be faster than the

cognitive processing of neutral information because the former is essential to survival and/or to

fight or flight responses. Many studies concluded that a complex stimulus increases reaction time

due to slowing down the reaction process. It is more relevant for survival and is associated with a

general slowdown of the processing of stimuli due to a defense mechanism that freezes activity

in the face of a threat. Generally, emotional words incite different reactions than neutral words.

Nevertheless, words are typically processed within a context rather than in isolation. Brazil's

research in the same field, it is stated that people tend to take more time to respond to emotional

words. Another group of researchers said the opposite. According to them, neutral words take

less
time to respond. According to this account, emotional stimuli yield greater engagement of

attention during the initial stages of cognitive processing.

Reaction Time

The range of time taken by people or machines to deliver a response to a given event or

stimulus is called reaction time. Usually, the human brain takes adequate time to understand the

situation or hear anything and then respond to the events happening around them. Reaction time

refers to the period between when something is perceived and when a response is created. It is

the ability to identify, comprehend, and respond to the stimulus. But sometimes, the time it takes

to respond to a certain stimulus can change. As a result, factors such as age, mood, knowledge,

physical condition, prior experience, and so many other factors affect the reaction time.

Given that cognitive aptitude is believed to continue until about the age of 20, the

Participant’s age may have an impact as well. We can also say that participants who are young

and in their 20s tend to react quicker than participants who are in their 70s. Also, whether the

person is introverted or extroverted matters so much. An introverted person is really shy to

answer the questions, and hence, they naturally take more time. Whereas an extroverted person

would answer easily and quickly.

When someone is injured or mentally disturbed, they will take more time to react to a

situation; their mental situation here is a vital factor to influence the whole experiment. Also,

being familiar with the same sort of psychological tests can be the reason for the experiment to

be shorter than usual. When the participant is new to the experiment, that will be accurate. In this

experiment, reaction time refers to the time taken by the participants after hearing the words.
Purpose

The purpose of the experiment was to determine the difference in human reaction

between emotional words and neutral words. Additionally, to find the difference in reaction time

of these two sets of words.

Variables

Two types of variables were used: one is the independent variable [IV], and the other one

is the dependent variable [DV]. In this experiment, neutral and emotional words are independent

variables. The reaction time is the dependent variable because it is completely dependent on the

words being asked.

Hypothesis

The assumption that the experimenter had made in this experiment was that the reaction

time to emotional words would be greater than the reaction time to neutral words.

METHODOLOGY

Design

The design of the experiment is standardized where 15 emotional words and 15 neutral

words are placed in the exact serial for each conduction of the experiment. The independent

variable (IV) was the stimulus words, emotional and neutral words. The dependent variable is the

response given by the participant upon hearing the stimulus word. The dependent variable is

measured in seconds for reaction time.

Participant

An undergraduate student, 22 years old, from the BBA in the Marketing Department of

North South University (Appendix 3) volunteered for this psychological experiment.

Materials

To conduct this experiment, an instruction (Appendix 1), a participant’s informed consent

(Appendix 2), a sheet for demographic information and feedback (Appendix 3), a sheet of list

containing 30 stimulus words (Appendix 4), and a sheet for calculation (Appendix 5) were

utilized. The list was formatted with two columns. In one column, 15 emotional words and 15

neutral words were placed. The other two columns were designated for recording the

participant's response word and reaction time (RT). Additional apparatus included a pen for

writing down response words and a stopwatch for tracking reaction time.

Procedure

The psychological experiment was conducted using some accustomed procedures. On

18th February, the experimenter invited and warmly welcomed a participant in the psychology

lab classroom. The participant was given to sit and hear the verbal instructions and asked for

consent to carry out the full experiment. After the verbal instructions, the written instruction

paper (Appendix 1) was shown to detail her about what was going to happen during the

experiment and what she was expected to do and not do. Additionally, she was made aware of

the confidentiality of the test and the fact that she might quit anytime. Any question asked to the

experimenter was also highly encouraged. Data such as the participant's name, age, gender,

department, semester, and socio-economic status were gathered as demographic information.

Afterward, the participant signed the consent form (Appendix 2), and finally, the

experimenter proceeded to the main

experiment. The participant was asked to respond with a word that immediately popped up in his

mind just when the experimenter said a word, either neutral or emotional. The participant was,

therefore, expected to respond as instantaneously as possible. The only restriction imposed was

not to respond with any word that was exactly opposite to the word being asked by the

experimenter. The timer or stopwatch was made ready to turn on when the word was given and

turned off immediately when the response was given. Therefore, in this way, one by one, 30

words (Appendix 4) were asked, and the response word and reaction time were jotted down by

the experimenter in the list using a pen. Finally, the experiment ended with a feedback paper

being given to the participant to write down how it was all. Without any restrictions, the

participant therefore expressed his opinions, and with that, a thank you was given in the end for

the participant's warm assistance. In the end, the total reaction time of all the 30 words was

calculated and averaged with the total number of emotional words [E], and the total of neutral

words was calculated and averaged or divided by the total number of words separately.
 RESULTS

Table 1: Total and average time difference between neutral and emotional words

Type of Word Total Reaction Time (Sec) Average Reaction Time (Sec)

Neutral Words (15) 71.52 4.768

Emotional Words (15) 69.84 4.656

From the result, we can observe that participants took more time to respond to emotional

words than neutral words. To be more precise, the participant took 69.84 seconds to respond to

15 emotional words, and the average time of this time is 4.656 seconds. On the other hand, the

participant took only 71.52 seconds to respond to 15 neutral words, for which the average

reaction time is 4.768 seconds. (Appendix 5).

 DISCUSSION

According to the findings, the difference in reaction time between emotional and neutral

words is minimal. This finding is completely consistent with the experiment's premise. People

take less time to respond to neutral words since they are a frequent channel of communication.

They use it now and then in their day-to-day lives. On the other hand, whenever people hear an

emotional word, they try to relate it to their life events and take more time to react. For instance,

the designated participant took 69.84 seconds, the lowest reaction time, to respond to the

emotional words than the neutral words. In the feedback part, the participant mentioned that

some of the words made her remember her past traumas and how her mother suffered through

that. It can be concluded that maybe the participant had an ordeal related to such a concept,

hence the less time to think and react about it. The length of the words, on average, was from 3

to 12 letters. Besides, the result of this experiment is consistent with the previous studies

conducted by Stephanie L. Johnson (2012) and Wilhelm Wundt (1879) Kanske & Kotz, 2011;

Schacht & Sommer, 2009; Scott et al., 2019). The scope of this study is immense. This study will

help psychologists understand the way people behave in response to certain conversations. One

of the biggest limitations of this experimental study was the environment. The sample was done

in the psychology lab classroom of North South University with many other students, and

everyone was taking the test at the same, so it was not possible to eliminate the extraneous

variables for which the participant was not comfortable enough with the environment.

Furthermore, there was also noise pollution that could distract the participant’s mind. 'In the

future, the experimenter can introduce variation in the methodology to get a much broader result.
 CONCLUSION

The experiment compared response times for emotional and neutral words, revealing that

the participant took longer to respond to neutral words. As noted in the feedback, her past

traumas and frequent exposure to emotional situations may have contributed to her overall faster

reaction to emotional words. Conclusively, these findings are consistent with existing research in

the field, though they highlight some variations across studies.

 References
John, P. &. (1991). Retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Automatic-
vigilance%3A-the-attention-grabbing-power-Pratto-
John/1b21ac00ee5749b94444183b2729397b762f093d

Lang, P. J. (1990). Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1990-27525-001

Oxford Dictionary. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

Sommer, S. &. (2009). Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19246325/

Vinson, P. &. (2013). Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3979450/

 Appendix-5

CALCULATION

Total emotional word = 15

Total emotional word time = 69.84 seconds

So, the average emotional word reaction time = 69.84/15 = 4.656 seconds.

Total neutral word = 15

Total neutral word time = 71.52 seconds

So, the average neutral word reaction time = 71.52 /15 = 4.768 seconds.