Conrad, M. , Recio, G. & Jacobs, A.
Freie Universität Berlin
For the project „Multilingualism and emotional effects during the reading process in different languages“(Research Cluster Languages of Emotion, FU Berlin) we investigate:
a) whether emotional effects in language processing are comparable across first and second language;
b) differences in emotional connotations for comparable concepts across different language systems or cultural differences in the processing of emotional content; and
c) implications of such phenomena for bilingual language processing.
To address these research questions we had extended normative rating databases for emotional word dimensions (valence, arousal, imageability) to a common base of 5,000 English, German and Spanish words.
Here, we present data from a lexical decision ERP-study comprising a word-emotional-valence manipulation (positive vs. negative vs. neutral) for German and Spanish words presented to both native speakers and second language learners in the two languages. Words in both languages were translations of each other - to allow for the investigation of potential differences in the ERP effects across L1-L2, as well as German and Spanish language processing.
ERPs revealed:
a) a sensitivity to valence -indicating an automatic processing of emotional content- not only in first but also in second language processing:
In both languages we obtained the classical effects of emotional valence during visual word recognition: an early posterior negativity (EPN) and a late positive complex (LPC) when comparing emotionally valent to neutral words. Very similar morphologies for these components were observed when comparing L2 to L1 reading performance, although onsets of the respective effects were slightly later in L2 as compared to L1.
b) Differential valence effects for semantically comparable material across participant groups showing a positivity-bias for Spanish but a negativity-bias for German native speakers:
ERP-contrasts were always greatest for Spanish speakers when comparing positive and neutral words, whereas the greater amplitude differences were obtained between negative and neutral items for German participants.