Behavioural and physiological responses to the emotional and taboo Stroop tasks in native and non-native speakers of English

Abstract

Skin conductance levels (SCLs) of native and non-native English speakers were measured during emotional and taboo Stroop tasks. Significantly slower response times to negative and taboo words when compared to neutral words were found in both groups of participants, but positive words were not found to differ significantly from neutral words. No differences between native and non-native speakers in their behavioural responses were present: the pattern of interference from negative and taboo words was found to be identical in L1 and L2. SCLs, however, did reveal differences between the native and non-native participants: native English speakers responded with significantly higher SCLs to negative and taboo words when compared with neutral and positive words. This difference was not observed in non-native speakers, although there was a trend for taboo words to elicit greater SCLs than positive words. This suggests that, although the two groups responded in a very similar manner on a behavioural level, the level of arousal produced by the negative and taboo words for native English speakers was greater than that for non-native speakers.A number of scholars have argued for the need to investigate emotions in bilinguals, but only recently have these questions been taken up by researchers (Pavlenko, 2006). One of the central questions to this area of investigation is whether bilinguals' first (L1) and second language (L2) differ in their emotionality. Studies using self-reports of emotional force (e.g.

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.…”

“…The authors' main conclusion was that the impact of the age of language acquisition was not as important as the proficiency level of a later acquired language for the emotional salience of a language. Eilola and Havelka (2010b) have continued their work in this field; in a new research they compared English native speakers with Greek-English late, Greek dominant bilinguals. The difference was that only English was tested: in one group as a native and in the other group as a second language.…”

“…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).…”

Thirty shades of offensiveness: L1 and LX English users’ understanding, perception and self-reported use of negative emotion-laden words

“…Ratings for the 3 taboo items in English ("He's an asshole", "He screwed your mother", "She's a bitch") received slightly higher ratings than the corresponding Mandarin items (p. 342), but skin conductance responses for insults, reprimands and taboo words were comparable in both languages. Skin conductance responses have been combined with reaction times in Eilola and Havelka (2011). The authors investigated a group of 32 native English speakers and a group of 31 bilinguals (Greek-English) who were students at the University of Kent (UK) using emotional and taboo Stroop tasks.…”