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Lexical Decision
Task

Emotional Word Processing Assessment

You will see a series of letter strings appear on screen. Your task is to decide as quickly and accurately as possible whether each string is a real English word or a non-word.

The lexical decision task, developed by Meyer and Schvaneveldt in 1971, measures how quickly we access words in memory. Adding emotional words reveals whether affective content speeds or slows lexical processing — a window into how emotion and cognition interact.

R

Press for
REAL WORD

F

Press for
FAKE WORD

The task includes words with different emotional valences (positive, negative, neutral). Response times are measured in milliseconds.

Select trial count

More trials = more reliable valence effect estimates

0/60

+

R

Real

F

Fake

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Task Complete

Performance Analysis

Overall Accuracy

—%

Mean Response Time

—ms

Response Time by Emotional Valence

Positive Words —ms

Neutral Words —ms

Negative Words —ms

Word Accuracy

—%

—ms mean RT

Fake Word Accuracy

—%

—ms mean RT

Detailed Statistics

SD (RT)

—

Median RT

—

Fastest

—

Slowest

—

Interpretation

Reference Values

Typical RT range: 500-900ms for correct responses. Faster than 300ms may indicate anticipatory responding; slower than 1500ms suggests hesitation or distraction.

Accuracy: Adults typically achieve 90-98%. Below 85% may indicate rushing, fatigue, or language processing difficulties.