Abstract
Positive and negative moods tend to have differential effects on lexico-semantic processing in the native language (L1). Though accumulating evidence points to dampened sensitivity to affective stimuli in the non-native language (L2), little is known about the effects of positive and negative moods on L2 processing. Here, we show that lexico-semantic processing is differently affected by positive and negative moods only in L1. Unbalanced Polish–English bilinguals made meaningfulness judgments on L1 and L2 sentences during two EEG recording sessions featuring either positive- or negative-mood-inducing films. We observed a reduced N1 (lexical processing) for negative compared to positive mood in L2 only, a reduced N2 (lexico-semantic processing) in negative compared to positive mood in L1 only, a reduced N400 (lexico-semantic processing) for meaningless compared to meaningful L1 sentences in positive mood only, and an enhanced late positive complex (semantic integration and re-analysis) for L2 compared to L1 meaningful sentence in negative mood only. Altogether, these results suggest that positive and negative moods affect lexical, lexico-semantic, and semantic processing differently in L1 and L2. Our observations are consistent with previous accounts of mood-dependent processing and emotion down-regulation observed in bilinguals.
Highlights
Chwilla et al [23] presented participants with positive and negative film clips and asked them to read high-cloze and low-cloze sentences. They observed increased N400 amplitudes for low-cloze compared to high-cloze sentences in participants experiencing a positive mood, with the effect being restricted to the right hemisphere and left occipital and temporal sites in the negative mood condition. These results suggest that a positive and negative mood do not lead to quantitative differences in cognitive processing but to qualitatively different lexico-semantic processing styles [28,29]
As expected, planned comparisons showed an increase in valence ratings in post- compared to pre-experiment mood ratings in the positive mood condition, b = 0.82, SE = 0.22, t(63) = 3.69, p = 0.003, and a decrease in the negative mood condition, b = −2.59, SE = 0.22, t(63) = −11.68, p < 0.001
Planned comparisons showed an increase in the PANAS ratings between pre- and post-experiment in the positive mood condition, b = 0.31, SE = 0.11, t(63) = 2.75, p = 0.047, and a decrease in the negative mood condition, b = −0.70, SE = 0.11, t(63) = −6.25, p < 0.001
Summary
Affect (i.e., emotions, attitudes, feelings, and moods) permeates all aspects of human existence, including communicative interactions, oftentimes unobtrusively yet pervasively [1]. Seeing that 21st century communication is incrementally becoming international, with most people around the world speaking more than one language daily [2], it seems vital to shift research attention towards the relationship between affect and bilingualism. Unbalanced bilinguals, for instance, have frequently been observed to show dampened emotional sensitivity to non-native content (see [3] for a review). Recent evidence has shown that emotional word processing can be affected by mood, a current affective background state [4,5]. Mood effects on language comprehension in a broader communicative context in bilinguals have received little scholarly attention. The present study investigates potential differences in positive and negative mood effects on lexico-semantic processing in native (L1) and non-native (L2) languages
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