That sounds exciting! Emotional iconicity facilitates processing and recall
Abstract
• We characterize arousal sound symbolism by analyzing the phonemes that predict ratings of 5,457 nonwords on arousal. • English words whose sounds are congruent with their arousal (e.g., “shock”) are responded to faster than incongruent words. • We find some evidence that individual personality differences in the experience of emotion moderate these effects. • Using a mega study data set of 1,551 items we find that caongruent words are more likely to be recalled on a memory task.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Multisensory perception and integration
Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
Neuroscience and Music Perception
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Memory and Language
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 150
- Pages
- 104769–104769
- Publication date
- 25 May 2026
- Language
- EN