Abstract
Emotional information significantly affects cognitive processes, as proved by research in the past decades. Recently, emotional effects on language comprehension and, particularly, syntactic processing, have been reported. However, more research is needed, as this is yet very scarce. The present paper focuses on the effects of emotion-laden linguistic material (words) on subsequent morphosyntactic processing, by using Event-Related brain Potentials (ERP). The main aim of this paper is to clarify whether the effects previously reported remain when positive, negative and neutral stimuli are equated in arousal levels and whether they remain long-lasting. In addition, we aimed at testing whether these effects vary as a function of the task performed with the emotion-laden words, to assess their robustness across variations in attention and cognitive load during the processing of the emotional words. In this regard, two different tasks were performed: a reading aloud (RA) task, where participants simply read aloud the words, written in black on white background, and an Emotional Stroop (ES) task, where participants named the colors in which the emotional words were shown. After these words, neutral sentences followed, that had to be evaluated for grammaticality while recording ERPs (50% containing a morphosyntactic anomaly). ERP analyses showed main effects of valence across tasks on the two components reflecting morphosyntactic processing: The Left Anterior Negativity (LAN) is increased by previous emotional words (more by negative than positive) relative to neutral ones, while the P600 is similarly decreased. No interactions between task and valence were found. As a result, an emotion-laden word preceding a sentence can modulate the syntactic processing of the latter, independently of the arousal and processing conditions of the emotional word.
Highlights
Contrary to previous traditions in the cognitive sciences, emotions seem to strongly impact cognitive processes
We aim to explore whether the same differential effects of valence persist in the long-term, that is, in the syntactic processing of a neutral sentence subsequent to emotion-laden words’ presentation, by differentially modulating the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN) and/or the P600 components
The major issue addressed in this study has been to investigate long-term emotional valence modulations induced by words on subsequent morphosyntactic processing when arousal levels are equated
Summary
Contrary to previous traditions in the cognitive sciences, emotions seem to strongly impact cognitive processes. Evidence supports that emotional information influences subsequent non-emotional tasks, including language processing (e.g., Gupta and Raymond, 2012) and, sentence-morphosyntactic processing (e.g., Jiménez-Ortega et al, 2012, 2017; Verhees et al, 2015). This has been a highly relevant finding, given that syntax has been traditionally described as automatic, modular and encapsulated, blind to other processes (Hauser et al, 2002; Friederici, 2004)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
