Table 2.

Stimulus characteristics

	Pleasant words	Unpleasant words	Neutral words
Average valence	7.8	2.5	5.2
Average arousal	6.6	6.5	3.8
Average frequency	52.4	60.0	60.0
Average word length	5.8	5.4	5.3

Word stimuli were selected from the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) set (Bradley and Lang 1999). Valence and arousal data from the ANEW set are represented on a scale ranging from 1 to 9, with 9 representing the most pleasant and most arousing ratings, respectively. Frequency information was obtained from Toglia and Battig (1978).