Sensory Emotion in Words: Evidence From an Event-related Potential (ERP) Study in Light of the Emotioncy Model

Abstract

Introduction: Delving into the prominent role of emotions and senses in the realm of language is not something new in the field. Thereupon, the newly developed notion of emotioncy has been introduced to the foreign language education to underscore the role of sense-induced emotions in the process of language learning and teaching. Methods: The present study implemented ERPs to provide evidence to the significance of employing emosensory instructional strategies in teaching vocabulary items. Hence, eighteen female participants were randomly instructed six English nouns toward which they had no prior knowledge and received no instruction for the other three words. Then, while the participants’ EEG was being recorded, they took a sentence comprehension task. Results: Behavioral results demonstrated significant differences among the avolved, the exvolved, and the involved nouns. However, ERP analyses of target words indicated the modulations of N100 and N480 components while no significant effect was observed at P200. Further, the analysis of sensory N100 for the critical words revealed no significant effect. Conclusion: In conclusion, the emotioncy-based language instruction could affect neural correlates of emotional word comprehension from the early stages of EEG recording. The findings of this study can shed light on the importance of including senses and emotions in language teaching, learning, and testing, along with materials development.