A Comparison of Turkish-English Bilinguals’ Processing of Emotion Words in Their Two Languages

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 89 - 98, 25.09.2017

Filiz Mergen , Gulmira Kuruoglu

https://doi.org/10.32601/ejal.460969

Cited By: 4

Abstract

There is a great deal of evidence showing that, in monolinguals, various emotional stimuli are processed
by the brain in different ways. This view has found considerable support from studies conducted with
verbal stimuli. In bilinguals, on the other hand, emotional processing is more complex, and is thought to
be influenced mainly by two factors; age of language acquisition and proficiency. In this study,
participants were forty-eight simultaneous / early bilinguals, who acquired both languages from birth,
and have high proficiency in both. A lexical decision task, i.e., distinguishing real words from non-words,
was used to gain insight into to how the participants processed visually presented emotion words in
Turkish and English. Reaction times and accuracy were recorded via SuperLab software program and
were statistically analyzed. Shorter response times and higher accuracy rates were found for real words
compared to non-words in both languages. Also, shorter response times were found for positive compared
to negative and neutral words in both languages. An analysis of the accuracy rates revealed no
statistically significant differences among Turkish emotion words, whereas, for English, accuracy rates
were higher for positive words when compared to negative and neutral words. These results have been
interpreted in the light of psycholinguistic models of lexical processing. 

Keywords

Bilingualism, lexical processing, emotion words, lateralization

References

• Altarribba, J. (2006). Cognitive approaches to the study of emotion-laden and emotion words in monolingual and bilingual memory. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression, and Representation (pp. 232-253) Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ekonomi/docDetail.action? docID=10120617 &p00=bilingual%20minds
• Altarriba, J., & Basnight-Brown, D. M. (2010). The representation of emotion vs. emotion- laden words in English and Spanish in the Affective Simon Task. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15 (3), 310-328.
• Anooshian, L., & Hertel, P. (1994). Emotionality in free recall: language specificity in bilingual memory. Cognition and Emotion, 8 (6), 503-514.
• Bogacz, R., Wagenmakers, E. J., Forstmann, B. U., & Nieuwenhuis, S. (2010). The neural basis of the speed-accuracy tradeoff. Trends in Neuroscience, 33 (1), 1-16.
• Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999). Affective norms for English words. instruction manual and affective ratings. Retrieved from: http://www.uvm .edu/ ~pd odds / files/papers/others/1999/bradley1999a.pdf.
• Brierley, B., Medford, N., Shaw, P., & David, A. S. (2007). Emotional memory for words: separating content and context. Cognition and Emotion, 21 (3), 495-521.
• Briesemeister, B. B., Kuchinke, L., & Jacobs A. M. (2011). Discrete emotion effects on lexical decision response times. PlosONE, 6 (8), 1-9.
• Chen, P., Lin, J., Chen, B., Lu, C., & Guo, T. (2015). Processing emotional words in two languages with one brain: ERP and fMRI evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. Cortex, 71, 34-48.
• Conrad, M., Recio, G., & Jacobs, A. M. (2011). The time course of emotion effects in first and second language processing: a cross cultural ERP study with German-Spanish bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 2 (351), 1-15.
• Dewaele, J. M. (2004a). The emotional force of swear words and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of Multilingualism and Multicultural Development, 25 (2-3), 204- 222.
• Dewaele, J. M. (2004b). Blistering barnacles! What languages do multilinguals swear in?. Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 5 (1), 83 -105.
• Dewaele, J. M. (2008). The emotional weight of I love you in multilinguals’ languages. Journal of Pragmatics, 40 (10), 1753-1780.
• Eilola T.M., & Havelka, J. (2011). Behavioural and physiological responses to the emotional and taboo Stroop tasks in native and non-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism,15 (3), 353-369.
• Eilola, T., Havelka, J., & Sharma, D. (2007). Emotional activation in the first and second language. Cognition and Emotion, 21 (5), 1064-1076.
• Estes, Z., & Adelman, J. S. (2008). Automatic vigilance for negative words in lexical decision and naming: Comment on Larsen, Mercer and Balota. Emotion, 8(4), 441-444.
• Ferre, P., Garcia, T., Frage, I., Sanchez-Casas, R., & Molero, M. (2010). Memory for emotional words in bilinguals: do words have the same emotional intensity in the first and in the second language? Cognition and Emotion, 24 (5), 760-785.
• Göz, İ. (2003). Yazılı Türkçe’nin kelime sıklığı sözlüğü. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
• Harris, C. L. (2004). Bilingual speakers in the lab: psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25 (2), 223-247.
• Harris, C. L., Ayçiçeği, A., & Gleason, J. B. (2003). Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first language than in a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24 (4), 561 – 579.
• Harris, C. L., Gleason, J. B., & Ayçiçeği, A. (2006). When is first language more emotional? psychophysiological evidence from bilingual speakers. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), Bilingual minds: Emotional Experience, Expression, and Representation, (pp. 257- 283). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ ekonomi/ docDetail.action? docID=10120617&p00=bilingual%20minds
• Jonczyk, R. (2013). Hemispheric asymmetries for emotional verbal stimuli in Polish-English bilinguals. Retrieved from http://wa.emu.edu.pl/plu/2013/files/Abstracts/Jonczyk.pdf Jonczyk, R. (2014). Hemispheric asymmetry of emotion words in a non-native mind: A divided visual field study. Laterality, 10 (1), 1-22.
• Kanske, P., & Kotz, S. A. (2007). Concreteness in emotional words: ERP evidence from a hemifield study. Brain Research, 1148, 138-148.
• Kissler, J., Herbert, C., Winkler, I., & Junghofer, M. (2009). Emotion and attention in visual word processing – an ERP study. Biological Psychology, 80 (1), 75-83.
• Kissler, J., & Koessler, S. (2011). Emotionally positive stimuli facilitate lexical decisions – an ERP study. Biological Psychology, 86 (3), 254-264.
• Kuchinke, L., Jacobs, A. M., Grubich, G., Vo, M. L., Conrad, M., & Herrmann, M. (2005). Incidental effects of emotional valence in single word processing: an fMRI study. NeuroImage, 28 (4), 1022-1032.
• Larsen, R. J., Kimberley, A., Mercer, K. A., & Balota, D. A. (2006). Lexical characterstics of words used in emotional stroop experiments. Emotion, 6 (1), 62-72.
• Larsen, R. J., Mercer, K. A., Balota, D. A., & Strube, M. J. (2008). Not all negative words slow down lexical decision and naming speed: Importance of word arousal. Emotion, 8(4), 445- 452.
• Nagae, S., & Moscovitch, M. (2002). Cerebral hemispheric differences in memory of emotional and non-emotional words in normal individuals. Neuropsychologica, 40 (9), 1601-1607.
• Oldfield, R. C. (1971). Oldfield handedness inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9(1),97-113.
• Palazova, M., Mantwill, K., Sommer, W., & Schacht, A. (2011). Are emotion effects in single words non-lexical? Evidence from event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 49 (9), 2766- 2775.
• Pavlenko, A. (2004). “Stop doing that, la komu skalaza!”: Language choice and emotions in parent-child communication. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25 (2- 3), 179 – 203.
• Pavlenko, A. (2008). Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 147-164.
• Pavlenko, A. (2012). Affective processing in bilingual speakers: disembodied cognition? International Journal of Psychology, 47 (6), 405 – 428.
• Sabsevitz, D. S., Medler, D. A., Seidenberg, M., & Binder, J. R. (2005). Modulation of semantic system by word imageability. NeuroImage, 27 (1), 188-200.
• Schacht, A., & Sommer, W. (2009). Emotions in word and face processing: Early and late cortical responses. Brain and Language, 69 (3), 538-550.
• Scott, G. G., O’Donnell, P. J., Leuthold, H., & Sereno, S. C. (2009). Early emotion word processing: evidence from event-related potentials. Biological Psychology, 80 (1), 95-104.
• Sutton, T. M., & Altarriba, J. (2008). Emotion words in the mental lexicon. The Mental Lexicon, 3 (1), 29-46.
• Sutton, T. M., Altarriba, J., Gianico, J. L., & Basnight-Brown, D. M. (2007). The automatic access of emotion: emotional stroop effects in Spanish-English bilingual speakers. Cognition and Emotion, 21 (5), 1077-1090.