PSY101L: Introduction to Psychology Lab

Section: 07
Experiment on:
Reaction Time to Neutral and Emotional Words

Submitted To:

Ashma Rahman [AmR1]

Lecturer
Department of History & Philosophy, NSU

Submitted By:

Name: Titon Saha

ID: 1712411030

Date of submission: 7th October 2020 (Wednesday)

 REACTION TIME TO NEUTRAL WORDS AND EMOTIONAL WORDS

Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review......................................................................................................................................5
Defining and describing study variables..................................................................................................5
Difference between Emotional and Neutral word...................................................................................5
Reaction Time (RT)...................................................................................................................................6
Method of measuring RT..........................................................................................................................6
Hypothesis..................................................................................................................................................7
Methodology..............................................................................................................................................8
Procedure...................................................................................................................................................8
Results........................................................................................................................................................9
Table 1....................................................................................................................................................9
Discussion.................................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................................12
Appendix..................................................................................................................................................13

2|Page
 Abstract

In our daily life we are exposed so many different words, all of them are not respond to each
other in similar way. The response differs from person to person, word to word which leads to
the arguable issue. To study on this arguable issue, an experiment was made in the psychology
Laboratory or North South University, for this experiment a single independent subject was used.
In the experiment, either emotional or neutral word was an independent variable (IV) and
reaction time was dependent variable (DV). One female participant was selected, who was an
undergraduate student of North South University. The participant had responded instantly after
hearing each word, there were total 30 word 15 from emotional and 15 from neutral all of the
word was random basis. To find the exact reaction time have used a timer. The reaction time of
participant of each word was recorded by the experimenter. From this experiment, it was found
out that neutral words took more time than the emotional words. Therefore, it was concluded that
people take more time to response neutral words.
 Introduction

Consciousness and feeling two important and complicated issue to experiment. How we see our
surrounding and how we fell it those are depend on five senses: touch, test, sound, sight, smell.
Those are important five sense of human being. In the following experiment Reaction time to
Emotional and Neutral word is concerned with the auditory sense among the test. It focuses on
that human being reacting differently toward different word during interacting to each other, how
and why they react differently and take different response time. There are many experiments
conducted on the reaction time of responding different words. Each time has found out that
reaction time varies from word to word.
Literature Review

A research conducted in 2007 on Cognition and Emotion by University of New York at Albany.
This research was conducted on English and Spanish words. The mean reaction time of
emotional English word was 560(ms) and neutral words were 510 (ms). On the other hand, in
Spanish word reaction time of emotional word was 510(ms) and neutral word was 490(ms).
(Robinson & Altarriba, 2007)

Defining and describing study variables

To communicate with other people, human being communicates through delivering words.
People interact through word and different physical expression which lead to emotion. In every
meaning sentence use different word and each of word carry different meaning sometimes a
single world carries multiple meaning. The following experiment will be conducting on
Emotional and Neutral words.

Difference between Emotional and Neutral word

Neutral words are those word we are using in our day to day life: Phone, Chair, car etc. On the
other hand, emotional words are bit complicated to explain. Emotion word are those type of
word with those we have feelings, sense and affection. Example, love, happiness. Emotional
words are related with subjective experience, situations, behavioral and psychological status.
Emotion words meaning vary from person to person, situation and personality. However, natural
words are not that much subjective rather objective. Neutral word doesn’t change the meaning
like emotional word. (Brandt, Nielsen, & Holmes, 2013)
Reaction Time (RT)

Reaction time (RT) indicated the total time a participant takes to answer a particular question.
Reaction time starts after when examiner ask the question and end when participant answer the
question.

Reaction time can be both simple and complex. In simple reaction time experiments, there is
only one stimulus and one response and complex reaction time see choice reaction time secreted
in large amounts when an individual is stimulated by fear, anxiety, or a similar stress-related
reaction.

Method of measuring RT
1. Speed of response

2. Duration of response

3. Reaction time or latency of response

4. Amplitude of responses

The factors that affect reaction time:

Place: In where the experiment is taking place, should be noise free, temperature should be
normal. Because if there is extra sound participant might be distracted, he/she may not hear the
question properly and if room temperature is not comfortable it might take long time to think the
answer.

Age: This is another factor that affect the reaction time because different age people take
different time to response. Reaction time is at the peak level from birth to the late twenties.
Hence younger people take less time than older people to response. Older people think much
more about the question and the answer but younger people instantly answer the question they
don’t think that much about the answer.

Gender: Normally people prefer similar gender while psychology test. Other than that, male
gender takes less time than female gender in order to answer the question, even if female do
practice before the experiment.
Vision: Visual stimulus also affect the reaction time. Stimulus seen directly tends to elicit
reaction faster than stimulus seen in increased reaction time.

Practice and error: people who used to with the test will take less reaction time than who
participate test in less frequent.

Psychological disorder: If participants have any intellectual and mental problem that increase the
reaction time.

Question Type: If questions are too much personal and ambiguous that leads increase the
reaction time.
Purpose / Objective: To investigate whether response time differs between neutral and emotional
words.

Variables: For this particular experiment only two variables were considered:

I. Independent Variable (IV): Emotional and Neutral word was considered as independent
variable.

II. Dependent Variable (DV): Reaction time (RT) was considered as dependent variable.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this experiment was that the emotional words take longer reaction time than the
neutral words.
Methodology
Design: For this experiment a single independent participant was used.
Participant: One male student of twenty-four (24) years old, current student of North South
University from BBA department, belonging from upper middle class has used for test purpose.
Materials: The following instruments were used for experiment purpose:
A list of 30 words, considering 15 emotional(E) and 15 neutral(N) words,
A smartphones stopwatch for checking exact response time.
A4 size paper & pen.

Procedure
One male participant was invited in the psychology lab of North South University for testing
purpose. The test was conducted on Thursday morning. The participant has seated on
comfortable chair, room temperature was normal and room was very quiet. Before the
experiment the participant got brief instruction about the test and provide a written instruction
about the test procedure, participant had to sign on this paper and mentioned she was volunteer
for the experiment. Before going to the experiment both experimenter and participant signed the
informed consent form. When the experiment started the experimenter started read sentence one
by one, after listening one word the experimenter listed the reaction time than ask another
question. Participant was not supposed to response any opposite word, all response should be
similar types of meaning. The experimenter was keep tracking all the reaction time by using
stopwatch and listed beside the word list. When experimenter ended up all the 30 words then
experimenter have to collect feedback from the participant. In the feedback participant was
allowed to write about everything about the questions, room condition, about the experimenter
and what he expected from the test and express his feelings about the experiment. At the end of
the experiment, the experimenter should be thankful toward the participant.
Results

Table 1
Reaction Time for Neutral & Emotional Words

Total Reaction Time Average Reaction Time

Neutral Word 53.69 seconds 3.57 seconds

Emotional Word 46.51 seconds 3.10 seconds

From the above table we can see that the participant took more time to respond to the neutral
words than emotional words. To be more specific, the participants took total 53.69 seconds and
the mean time was 3.57 seconds (per question) to answer the 15 neutral words. On the other
hand, the participants took 46.51 seconds and average time was 3.10 seconds (per question) to
answer all 15 emotional questions.
Discussion

From the final result, it is seen that the reaction time of emotional words are lower than the
neutral words. Total response time and average time of emotional words were lower than the
neutral words.
Before the main experiment started hypothesis was emotional words take longer time than the
neutral time in terms of response. At the final of the experiment, the final result not support the
hypothesis, because in the experiment neutral words took more response time. Moreover, this
experiment also not supports the previous experiment on emotional and neutral words done by
University of New York. They researched on two different language English and Spanish, where
emotional words took more time. So, it can be concluded that in psychological test people always
not take more time to response of emotional words.
The main limitation of this experiment was the number of participants. For this experiment only
one participant was used and from the North South University, which doesn’t represent the other
people outside of NSU. So, result of other people and if experiment was on more participants
than result might be change or different. Another factor is the participants was very close to
experimenter, if experimenter didn’t know the participants in before than result might be
changed. From this experiment it can say that human being always take time when the question
is personal, emotional. In our real life most of us fell shy, nervous to answer those kind of
emotional words rather neutral words. Because neutral words are abstract and people deals with
those words with their day to day life that’s why they don’t need much time to response.
To sum up, human beings are more sensitive towards neutral words and the experiment also
support this statement. Because it is now experimented that people take longer response time to
answer neutral question or word than emotional question or words.
Conclusion

The purpose of this conduction was to assess whether the emotional words take more reaction
time than the neutral words. Though the primary hypothesis has been rejected by this
experiment, the average reaction time of neutral words was 3.57 and average reaction time
emotional words was 3.10, which clearly rejected the hypothesis. Finally, it can be decided that
neutral words will have a longer reaction time than emotional words.
References
Brandt, K. R., Nielsen, M. K., & Holmes, A. (2013). Forgetting Emotional and Neutral Words: An ERP
Study. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234823030_Forgetting_Emotional_and_Neutral_Wo
rds_An_ERP_Study

CogniFoit. (n.d.). What is reaction time or response time? Retrieved from

https://www.cognifit.com/science/cognitive-skills/response-time

ENCYCLOPEDIA. (2020, September 30). Reaction Time. Retrieved from ENCYCLOPEDIA.COM:

https://www.encyclopedia.com/earth-and-environment/ecology-and-
environmentalism/environmental-studies/reaction-time

Robinson, C. J., & Altarriba, J. (2007). The interrelationship between emotion, cognition, and
bilingualism.
Appendix

Participant’s Informed Consent

The purpose of this psychological experiment is to understand the human’s

reaction to different types of words. In this experiment, you will be read aloud to a
series of words one by one. Your task is to tell the very first word that pops up in
your mind immediately after hearing each word that I will be reading out to you
from the list. Here, one important thing that needs to be remembered is, you can
respond with any word in the world, except the one which is exactly the opposite
of the word that will be read out to you. We will not use any drug or chemical in
this experiment. In this experiment, there is no risk involved for your physical and
mental health. The confidentiality of the information or data obtained from you
will be highly maintained, and will be used only for the experimental purpose.
Your identity will be kept anonymous. There won’t be any financial transaction
involved in this experiment; neither will you receive any money or incentive for
your participation. The obtained result will be used only for the scientific benefit or
for human welfare. It will take about 30 minutes to finish the task.

Your participation is completely voluntary and you have the right to withdraw any
time.

After reading and understanding the above texts, I am willing to participate in this
experiment.

Saiful Islam Titon Saha

Participant’s signature Experimenter’s signature

 Instruction

Dear Participant,

Welcome to the psychological experimental setting. You have been invited here to participate in
a psychological experiment. Your task is very easy. You will be read aloud to a series of words
one by one. Your task is to tell the very first word that pops up in your mind immediately after
hearing each word that I will be reading out to you from the list. Here, you have to keep one
thing in your mind that, you can respond with any word in the world, except the one which is
exactly the opposite of the word that will be read out to you. For example, if I say the word
“warm” you can’t respond with the word “cold”.
I hope you understand the task. If you have any question, please feel free to ask

me. Thank you so much for your sincere participation.

Titon Saha
Experimenter
 Wordlist

Sl. No. Stimulus Word Response Word Reaction Time

(In Second)
1. Honeymoon (e) love 1.64
2. Sweetheart (e) wife 4.8
3. Classroom (n) student 3
4. Chair (n) comfort 3.5
5. Rage (e) people 5
6. Watch (n) time 4.69
7. Dance (e) movement 1
8. Joy (e) feelings 1.90
9. Book (n) study 3.88
10. Song (e) melody 3.42
11. Bag (n) Book 2.45
12. Cupboard (n) Visible 3.40
13. Flower (e) Pure 4.29
14. Mother (e) Loving person 2.57
15. Iron (n) Still 3.62
16. Paper (n) Story 4.32
17. Death (e) Uncertainty 5.34
18. Eid/Puja (e) Festivals 3.00
19. Horse (n) Speed 2.43
20. Independence (e) Freedom 2.40
21. Day (n) Sun 3.24
22. Graveyard (e) Cemetery 1.30
23. Pen (n) Writing 4.50
24. Hug (e) Love 5.2
25. Umbrella (n) Secure 3.9
26. Glass (n) Water 4.2
27. Best Friend (e) Good Buddy 3.2
28. Pencil (n) Art 2.9
29. Love (e) Caring 1.45
30. Three (n) Number 3.66
 ∑
1. Total Average Time =
𝟑𝟎

100.20
= 30
=3.34 seconds

∑
2. Total Emotional Average Time =
𝟏𝟓

46.51
= 15
= 3.10 seconds

∑
3. Total Neutral Average Time =
𝟏𝟓

53.69
= 15
=3.57 seconds

Titon Saha
Experimenter