Article Version of Record

Placing joy, surprise and sadness in space. A cross-linguistic study.

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Marmolejo-Ramos, F.
Correa, J. C.
Sakarkar, G.
Ngo, G.
Ruiz-Fernández, S.
Butcher, N.
Yamada, Y.

Other kind(s) of contributor

Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien

Abstract / Description

The valence–space metaphor posits that emotion concepts map onto vertical space such that positive concepts are in upper locations and negative in lower locations. Whilst previous studies have demonstrated this pattern for positive and negative emotions e.g. ‘joy’ and ‘sadness’, the spatial location of neutral emotions, e.g. ‘surprise’, has not been investigated, and little is known about the effect of linguistic background. In this study, we first characterised the emotions joy, surprise and sadness via ratings of their concreteness, imageability, context availability and valence before examining the allocation of these emotions in vertical space. Participants from six linguistic groups completed either a rating task used to characterise the emotions or a word allocation task to implicitly assess where these emotions are positioned in vertical space. Our findings suggest that, across languages, gender, handedness, and ages, positive emotions are located in upper spatial locations and negative emotions in lower spatial locations. In addition, we found that the neutral emotional valence of surprise is reflected in this emotion being mapped mid-way between upper and lower locations onto the vertical plane. This novel finding indicates that the location of a concept on the vertical plane mimics the concept’s degree of emotional valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2017

Journal title

Psychological Research

Volume

81

Issue

4.0

Page numbers

750-763

Publisher

Springer

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

10.1007/s00426-016-0787-9

Citation

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Marmolejo-Ramos, F.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Correa, J. C.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Sakarkar, G.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ngo, G.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ruiz-Fernández, S.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Butcher, N.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Yamada, Y.
  • Other kind(s) of contributor
    Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2017-08-28T11:11:16Z
  • Made available on
    2017-08-28T11:11:16Z
  • Date of first publication
    2017
  • Abstract / Description
    The valence–space metaphor posits that emotion concepts map onto vertical space such that positive concepts are in upper locations and negative in lower locations. Whilst previous studies have demonstrated this pattern for positive and negative emotions e.g. ‘joy’ and ‘sadness’, the spatial location of neutral emotions, e.g. ‘surprise’, has not been investigated, and little is known about the effect of linguistic background. In this study, we first characterised the emotions joy, surprise and sadness via ratings of their concreteness, imageability, context availability and valence before examining the allocation of these emotions in vertical space. Participants from six linguistic groups completed either a rating task used to characterise the emotions or a word allocation task to implicitly assess where these emotions are positioned in vertical space. Our findings suggest that, across languages, gender, handedness, and ages, positive emotions are located in upper spatial locations and negative emotions in lower spatial locations. In addition, we found that the neutral emotional valence of surprise is reflected in this emotion being mapped mid-way between upper and lower locations onto the vertical plane. This novel finding indicates that the location of a concept on the vertical plane mimics the concept’s degree of emotional valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/505
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.713
  • Publisher
    Springer
  • Is version of
    10.1007/s00426-016-0787-9
  • Title
    Placing joy, surprise and sadness in space. A cross-linguistic study.
  • DRO type
    article
  • Leibniz institute name(s) / abbreviation(s)
    IWM
  • Leibniz subject classification
    Psychologie
  • Issue
    4.0
  • Journal title
    Psychological Research
  • Page numbers
    750-763
  • Volume
    81
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record