Semantic and prosodic threat processing in trait anxiety: is repetitive thinking influencing responses?

Cogn Emot. 2021 Feb;35(1):50-70. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1804329. Epub 2020 Aug 14.

Abstract

The present study attempts to identify how trait anxiety, measured as worry-level, affects the processing of threatening speech. Two experiments using dichotic listening tasks were implemented; where participants had to identify sentences that convey threat through three different information channels: prosody-only, semantic-only and both semantic and prosody (congruent threat). We expected different ear advantages (left or right) depending on task demands, information type, and worry level. We used a full Bayesian approach for statistical modelling and analysis. Main results indicate that as worry-level increases, participants' reaction times increase. We explain this effect by proposing a fourth stage, associated with goal-oriented deliberation, for a three-phasic multistep model of emotional language processing. Higher levels of trait anxiety could induce verbal repetitive thinking (i.e. worry and/or rumination), which might prolong the mentioned deliberation stages, thus slowing down responses.

Keywords: Anxiety; prosody; semantics; speech.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Retracted Publication

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anxiety / physiopathology*
  • Anxiety / psychology*
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Emotions
  • Executive Function / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Male
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Rumination, Cognitive / physiology*
  • Semantics*
  • Speech Perception / physiology*