Abstract
Affective valence is widely regarded as a core organizing dimension in word recognition, yet findings on its role remain inconsistent. We argue that this inconsistency reflects a longstanding operationalization of valence as a domain-general signal. Using pain-related language as a test case, where physical and social pain words share conceptual and affective features but diverge in their dominant experiential grounding, we examined whether valence differentially modulates lexical access as a function of grounding type. Reaction times from a lexical decision task were modeled using multiple regression, testing interactions between pain type and valence alongside other semantic and lexical predictors. Greater negative valence predicted faster lexical access for social pain words, whereas no valence effect emerged for physical pain words, and this dissociation was statistically significant. No other predictor showed a significant interaction with pain type. These findings indicate that valence operates as a grounding-specific facilitator rather than a domain-general signal, and align with multiple representation frameworks in which affective, sensorimotor, and social dimensions interactively ground conceptual knowledge.