An emotion-eliciting version of the Hayling Sentence Completion Test

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Executive functions comprise a suite of higher-order cognitive processes, which interact with other processes, such as emotion, to drive goal-directed behavior. The Hayling Sentence Completion Test is a widely used standard neuropsychological tool to measure executive functions, namely verbal initiation and suppression. The current studies aimed to establish and validate an emotion-eliciting version of the Hayling Sentence Completion Test, in order to examine the executive processes of initiation and suppression in an emotional context. Study 1 aimed to provide a quantitative evaluation of the emotional content of the Emotional Hayling Test. Study 2 investigated the differences between the Standard and Emotional Hayling Tests, and explored how performance relates to specific emotional properties of the sentences within the Emotional Hayling.

Methods

Study 1 included N = 100 participants, who were asked to rate each Emotional Hayling Sentence stem in terms of valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal (intensity: low-high). Study 2 included N = 204 participants who completed the Emotional Hayling Test, along with other neuropsychological measures of cognitive and affective functioning.

Results

As designed, the sentence stimuli in the Emotional Hayling were rated as significantly higher in absolute emotional valence and arousal, compared to the Standard Hayling (Study 1). Overall, initiation and suppression on the Emotional Hayling were significantly poorer than on the Standard Hayling (Study 2). Finally, within the Emotional Hayling, participants made more suppression errors in response to negative sentences compared to positive sentences, and this effect was present in younger but not older adults.

Conclusions

Reduced performance on the Emotional Hayling Test, particularly in response to negative sentences, is consistent with the emotional content placing increased demands on the executive function system. We present the Emotional Hayling Test as a promising clinical tool, with the potential to capture disruptions in emotional processing.

KEYWORDS:

• Hayling Sentence Completion Test
• emotion
• valence
• verbal suppression
• initiation

Acknowledgments

We thank Amie Willis, Meg Hull, and Jacquelyn Knight for assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

All data from Study 1 and Study 2 are publicly available at https://osf.io/jqmru/.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2022.2157797

Additional information

Funding

At the time of data collection, M.S.B. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Scholarship. G.A.R. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellowship (APP1135769), and this work was in part supported by the Brazil Family Program for Neurology.