My PhD project examines the representation and activation of conceptual emotion knowledge. The first question I am trying to answer is what role the body plays in the representation of conceptual emotion knowledge. In other words, do bodily reactions occur when people process emotion words or sentences? This line of research is based on embodiment theories that propose that sensory-motor experiences, introspective states and bodily reactions may form the foundation of conceptual representations of emotion. The second question concerns the consequences of emotion knowledge activation. My main focus in this regard is whether people become more sensitive to emotional stimuli if emotion knowledge is active.

I have used different paradigms in trying to answer these questions. I have worked with tasks asking participants to generate words, to unscramble or judge sentences and to retrieve autobiographical memories. In these studies I have measured expressive behavior (posture changes and fEMG), autonomic nervous system activity (electrodermal activity), reaction times and subjective emotion experiences.