Social acquisition context matters: Increased neural responses for native but not nonnative taboo words

Katherine Sendek,Valeria Pfeifer,Vicky Tzuyin Lai,Grit Herzmann

doi:10.3758/s13415-021-00951-4

Katherine Sendek, Valeria Pfeifer + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-021-00951-4

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Abstract

This study examined whether the context of acquisition of a word influences its visual recognition and subsequent processing. We utilized taboo words, whose meanings are typically acquired socially, to ensure that differences in processing were based on learned social taboo, rather than proficiency. American English-speaking participants made word/non-word decisions on American taboo (native dialect), British taboo (non-native dialect), positive, neutral, and pseudo- words while EEG was recorded. Taboo words were verified as taboo by both American and British English speakers in an independent norming survey. American taboo words showed a more positive amplitude of the Late Positive Complex (LPC), a neural correlate of emotionality and social processing, compared with British taboo words and all other word categories. Moreover, in an item-wise analysis, LPC amplitudes of American taboo words were positively correlated with their taboo ratings. British taboo words did not show this effect. This indicates that American participants, who had very limited social contact with British English, did not have the same perception of social threat from British taboo words as they had from American taboo words. These results point to the importance of social context of acquisition in establishing social-affective meaning in language.

Highlights

Are words learned during social interaction perceived differently compared with words learned from textbooks in school? The emotional context of learning hypothesis (Caldwell-Harris 2014; Harris et al 2006) suggests the environment in which a language is learned and used influences the level of emotional impact the language has on the speaker
lexical decision task (LDT) behavioral results showed a processing advantage for American taboo words, which had a higher proportion of hits and faster reaction time (RT) as compared to other categories
Event related potentials (ERPs) data showed that American taboo words elicited more positive Late Positive Complex (LPC) amplitudes as compared to British taboo and all other, nontaboo words

Summary

Introduction

Are words learned during social interaction perceived differently compared with words learned from textbooks in school? The emotional context of learning hypothesis (Caldwell-Harris 2014; Harris et al 2006) suggests the environment in which a language is learned and used (e.g., naturalistic vs. academic) influences the level of emotional impact the language has on the speaker. This may have influenced the results of previous studies comparing L1 and L2 perception for both emotional (Anooshian and Hertel 1994; Brase and Mani 2017; Conrad et al 2011; Chen et al 2015) and taboo words (Eilola and Havelka 2011; Harris et al 2003; Harris 2004), wherein proficiency was not controlled for Given such mutual intelligibility by these “bidialectals” (Dewaele 2015), the use of dialects that are largely similar to each other, such as American English and British English, may remove the confound of L2 proficiency. For verification of the experimental manipulation, pseudowords were predicted to show more negative N400 amplitudes compared with words (Kutas and Federmeier 2011)

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