We used nouns that could be judged either as neutral or emotional for an emotional semantic decision task or as animate or inanimate for the non–emotional semantic

decision task. The 432 words were divided in four categories of equal size, namely (1) emotional-animate (e.g., aggressor), (2) neutral-animate (e.g., grain), (3) emotional-inanimate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (e.g., poetry), and (4) neutral-inanimate (e.g., fork). At study, 2/3 of these words were randomly selected – in equal proportion – from the four categories. At test, the remaining 1/3 were inserted as new words for the recognition test. Sixteen additional words were selected from the same database to create a practice list for the study and test Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical phases. All stimuli were presented in black (font Courier New 24) on a gray background and word length varied between 2.7 and 6.2 cm. The subjects were seated 1.2 m away from the screen and the words subtended a vertical visual angle of 0.4° and a horizontal visual angle ranging between 1.3° and 3.1°. Task and procedure At study, every word was preceded by a cue, which consisted of the presentation

of either the letter O or the letter X. After the letter O, the selleck kinase inhibitor participants had to decide whether the upcoming word was animate or inanimate. Following the letter X, they had to decide whether Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the upcoming word was neutral or emotional. The cues were randomly presented, ensuring that the task on each trial could not be predicted before the cue. The cues were displayed for 2600 msec. They were followed by a 100 msec blank period and the presentation of the word. Each word was presented for 300 msec, followed by a fixation-cross for 2200 msec. Thus, each trial Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical had a duration of 5200 msec. The subjects Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were instructed to respond by pressing one of four keys with the index and middle fingers. The middle and index fingers were used, respectively,

to respond to emotional and animacy judgments. After 18-min rest, there was a surprise recognition memory test, in which all 288 words randomly presented in the study phase (old words) were used along with 144 new words, divided also into the four above mentioned categories. Before the presentation of each word, an exclamation mark was shown for 1000 msec, serving as a fixation point and as a warning stimulus. these The words were visually presented one at a time for 300 msec, followed by a blank screen of 2900 msec. Thus, each trial lasted 4200 msec. Participants were instructed to decide for each word whether they had seen it in the previous experiment, and to indicate whether they were confident or not about their decision. As before, the subjects were instructed to respond by pressing one of four keys with the index and middle fingers. The middle and index fingers were used, respectively, to respond to sure and unsure old/new judgments.