Emotional activation in the first and second language

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

“…Since then, many researchers have designed studies asking whether and when the first, native language is emotionally more intensive compared to the second one and vice versa. The debate is ongoing: some researchers think that the first, native language has more intensive emotional tone (Deweale 2004), and that it is presumably contextually more grounded than the second language (Altarriba 2006), whereas others state that research on bilingualism does not unequivocally support the notion that "the first language is the language of the heart" (Eilola et al 2007). Javier 's (2007, 76) opinion is that an additional feature of affective and abstract information might be that they are "more accessible in relation to the language more closely associated with the development of this specific emotional and abstract information", than concrete words/topics.…”

“…The second research conducted by Eilola et al (2007) started with a hypothesis that late, Finnish dominant bilinguals, who are proficient in English, should show a smaller interference effect in the second language, due to its reduced emotionality. An additional aim was to test if there was a taboo Stroop effect using taboo words, which were assumed to be intensively arousing and connected to physiological changes (Jay et al 2008).…”

“…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).…”

Self-reported use and perception of the L1 and L2 among maximally proficient bi- and multilinguals: a quantitative and qualitative investigation

“…Participants responded significantly faster when the words were presented in English, but the relative size of the interference effect caused by the emotional component was similar in both languages. Eilola et al (2007) followed a similar procedure with Finnish participants who were proficient late learners of English. In their study, participants had longer reaction times on the Emotional Stroop task when presented with taboo and negative words.…”