Irritant word

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Stimulus word ( English stimulus word , French mot de stimulation, mot-stimulus ) is a term for words or phrases that stimulate certain emotional reactions, associations or other reflex-like mental processes in the recipient .

Word history

The word "Reizwort", older form "Reitzwort", has been used in German since the 16th century and its meaning was initially largely limited to negatively provocative "abuse, scolding, blasphemy or stimulus words" that lead to contradiction and dispute “Irritate”, but the meaning has expanded since the end of the 19th century under the influence of psychological terminology, which uses the term stimulus regardless of the positive or negative character of the reaction, so that the Duden the word “stimulus” today with the general meaning "Word that triggers emotions" explained.

Literary studies and the sociology of language

The character of a stimulus word is not primarily a linguistic property, but is conditioned by the situation in which it is used, the individual disposition and cultural character of the recipient, as well as the circumstances of linguistic and stylistic convention. Under certain circumstances, however, the character of the stimulus word can be linked to linguistic and stylistic properties, taking into account such contextual factors. With this in mind, literary studies sometimes examine the extent to which the choice of words in a text, for example through tonal properties, judgmental connotations or intertextual references, is particularly designed to arouse emotional or associative reactions on the part of the reader and thereby control their reception of the text. By disregarding contextual factors, Otto F. Best's handbook of literary terms defines the stimulus word as a “word that is particularly charged in terms of sound and association and that activates associations” and “especially in poetry”. Words that are stimulating according to their education, origin and history are also considered stimulant words. In linguistic sociological contexts, the stimulus word is sometimes also subordinated to the catchphrase and, according to the older, narrower meaning as a semantically negative catchphrase, is separated from the "headword" as a semantically positive catchphrase.

Association Research and Neuroscience

While approaches of this kind examine stimulus words in given texts and text corpora, experimental psycholinguistics and psychological association research use words as stimulus words in order to trigger "reaction words" in the test subject or analysand and from these reaction words and the measured reaction times to draw conclusions about mental processes or individual disorders to pull. The stimulus word method as an experimental method was introduced by Francis Galton , Wilhelm Wundt and others in the last quarter of the 19th century and was soon adapted by Freud and CG Jung . Freud summarized the proceedings in 1916/17 as follows:

“The Wundt school had specified the so-called association experiment, in which the test subject is given the task of responding as quickly as possible to a 'stimulus word' with any 'reaction'. One can then study the interval that runs between stimulus and response, the nature of the response given, the possible error in repeating the same experiment later, and the like. The Zurich School, under the leadership of Bleuler and Jung, gave the explanation of the reactions that occurred in the association experiment by asking the test subject to explain the reactions he received through subsequent associations if they were wearing something conspicuous. It then turned out that these conspicuous reactions were determined in the sharpest way by the complexes of the test subjects. Bleuler and Jung had built the first bridge from experimental psychology to psychoanalysis. "

Experimental procedures based on the stimulus word method are now part of the methodological tools of neuroscientific research and were used there, for example, to research dysphasia and dyslexia , but also in clinical research to investigate the effects of anesthetics .

Promotion of creativity

Modified stimulus word methods, as a method of promoting creativity, have recently also been found in language and writing didactics , in which predefined stimulus words, which can be selected arbitrarily or with regard to a specific topic, are used as associative points of contact to create a text ("stimulus word history") should facilitate. Similarly, in the field of innovation management, as a special form of brainstorming, stimulus word processes have been developed in which randomly selected stimulus words are intended to enable new approaches to be found in an associative way when finding ideas on a given topic or problem.

Applied Psychology

Advertising and sales psychology is concerned with the search for practical rules on how the behavior of the recipient can be controlled by avoiding negative stimulus words and using positive stimulus words .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Reproduced in a modernized manner based on a contract from Höxter from 1533: "Schme, Schelt, laster und reitzwort", quoted by Klemens Löffler (ed.): Hermann Hamelmanns Geschichtliche Werke. Critical new edition. Volume II, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 1913, p. 355, note 4
  2. ↑ key word. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 14 : R - skewness - (VIII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1893, Sp. 800 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  3. ^ Duden spelling of the German language. 21st edition, Dudenverlag, Mannheim [u. a.] 1996, p. 615, Art. "Stimulus"
  4. ↑ Otto F. Best: Handbook of literary terms: Definitions and examples. revised Edition, Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1973, p. 225.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Namislow: Stimulus dictionary for vocabulary seekers . Logo Verlag 2008.
  6. ^ Walter Dieckmann: Language in Politics: Introduction to the pragmatics and semantics of political language. 2nd ed., C. Winter, Heidelberg 1975 (= linguistic study books. 2), p. 102.
  7. ↑ Gustav Aschaffenburg: Experimental studies on associations. Part I: The Associations in the Normal Condition. Wilhelm Englemann, Leipzig 1895.
  8. ↑ Quoted from Christfried Tögel: Freud and Wundt: From the hypothesis to the peoples psychology. In: Bernd Nitzsche (Ed.): Freud and the academic psychology: Contributions to a controversy. Psychologie-Verlags-Union, 1989, pp. 97-106, p. 101 ( freud-biographik.de ).
  9. ↑ Maria Wyke: An experimental study of verbal association in dysphasic subjects. In: Brain. 85, 1962, pp. 679-686.
  10. ^ Todd E. Feinberg, Diana Dyckes-Berke, Christian R. Miner, David M. Roane: Knowledge, implicit metaknowledge in visual agnosia and pure alexia. In: Brain. 118, 1995, pp. 789-800.
  11. ^ J. Andrade, L. Englert, C. Harper, ND Edwards: Comparing the effects of stimulation and propofol infusion rate on implicit and explicit memory formation. In: British Journal of Anaethesia. 86, 2001, pp. 189-195.
  12. ↑ Marion Schröder: Eureka, I found it! Creativity techniques, problem solving & brainstorming. W3L-Verlag, Herdecke / Bochum 2005, chap. 6.4 "Stimulus word methods", p. 187 ff.

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