The emotional Stroop task and emotionality rating of negative and neutral words in late Thai–English bilinguals

Abstract

The current study investigated how emotions are represented in the lexicon of late Thai-English bilinguals and a comparison group of native English speakers. Two tasks were used. In the emotional Stroop task, which taps into an automatic early lexical level of processing, the bilingual participants did not display the same automatic level of activation in their second language (L2) as in their first language (L1). In the emotionality-rating task, which involves a later, more in-depth conscious level of processing than the preceding task, similar results were found in both languages spoken by the bilinguals. These findings are interpreted as indicating that late bilinguals do not automatically respond to the emotional arousal associated with the meanings of L2 words to the same extent as in the L1, and this is likely to be mediated by language proficiency and the context in which the language is learned.

Emotional activation measured using the emotional Stroop task in early Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals from Serbia

“…The other three studies that measured the emotional effects worked with late bilinguals, who started to learn the second language at the age of 6-7 or later (Eilola et al 2007;Eilola & Havelka 2010b) and in formal, educational settings (Winskel 2013). Eilola et al (2007) and Eilola and Havelka (2010b) have found mutually concurring results: a significant effect of word type, and non-significant effects of language and interaction.…”

“…In conclusion, it seems that the changes in physiological (re)activity are not always mirrored in subjective experience. Winskel (2013) investigated the effects of language proficiency on emotional interference. Twenty negative and twenty neutral emotion and emotional words were used to compare a native English group from Australia with Thai-English bilinguals from Thailand.…”

“…In recent times, an experimental design, the emotional Stroop task, has been adapted to measure bilingual populations (Sutton et al 2007;Eilola et al 2007;Eilola & Havelka 2010b;Winskel 2013). The task can show interference due to emotional content.…”

“…The relations and interplay between language and emotions have been assessed employing various methods: rating procedures (Altarriba 2006), experimental designs (Sutton et al 2007;Eilola et al 2007;Eilola & Havelka 2010b;Winskel 2013), and physiological measures (Harris et al 2006;Eilola & Havelka 2010b).…”

Neural Correlates of Task-Irrelevant First and Second Language Emotion Words – Evidence from the Emotional Face–Word Stroop Task

“…Contradictory research findings have also been reported in the emotional Stroop task in bilinguals. For instance, studies with late Thai-English bilinguals revealed identifiable differences between the automatic activation of emotional content in L1 and L2 emotion words (Winskel, 2013). Furthermore, mixed results were observed within one single study with empirical evidence from different tasks.…”