Faster process of `big` words, compared to `small` words by the brain

A new study has revealed that words which refer to big things are processed more quickly by the brain than words for small things. Researchers at the University of Glasgow had previously found that big concrete words – 'ocean', 'dinosaur', 'cathedral' – were read more quickly than small ones such as 'apple', 'parasite' and 'cigarette'. Dr Sara Sereno, a Reader in the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology who led the study said: “It seems that size matters, even when it's abstract and you can't see it”. This study is published in the journal PLoS ONE and it also involved researchers from Kent, Manchester and Oregon. Lead author Dr Bo Yao said: “It turned out that our big concrete and abstract words, like 'shark' and 'panic', tended to be more emotionally arousing than our small concrete and abstract words, like 'acorn' and 'tight'. Our analysis showed that these emotional links played a greater role in the identification of abstract compared to concrete words”. “Even though abstract words don't refer to physical objects in the real world, we found that it's actually quite easy to think of certain concepts in terms of their size”, said co-author Prof Paddy O'Donnell. “Everyone thinks that 'devotion' is something big and that 'mischief' is something small”.