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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1373636

Language switching is modulated by emotion priming: Evidence from behavioral and event-related potentials study

Provisionally accepted
Yun Wang Yun Wang 1*Xinfang Liu Xinfang Liu 1Dianzhi Liu Dianzhi Liu 2Chuanlin Zhu Chuanlin Zhu 3
  • 1 Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
  • 2 Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3 Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study explored the influence of emotion on language switching between Chinese (L1) and English (L2) using a dual task involving emotion priming and word-picture matching, with concurrent measurement of event-related potentials. The behavioral results indicated that a happy mood improved the accuracy and efficiency of L1 switching, while a fearful mood enhanced the efficiency of L2 switching. Electrophysiological data revealed significant interactions among emotion, language, and task in the P1, N2, and N400 stages. Specifically, a happy mood was associated with an increased P1 amplitude during L1 switching, larger N2 amplitudes during L1 repetition, L1 switching, and L2 repetition, as well as greater N400 amplitudes during L1 repetition, L1 switching, and L2 repetition, along with a larger N600 during L2 repetition. Conversely, a fearful mood exhibited a significantly larger N400 during L2 switching and a larger N600 during L2 switching. The study findings suggest that positive emotions were beneficial for L1 switching in the early stages of visual attention allocation, conflict processing, and lexical-semantic processing. In contrast, negative emotions exhibited a more significant advantage for L2 switching in lexical-semantic processing and deeper levels of semantic processing. This study provides the first electrophysiological evidence for the impact of emotion priming on language-switching performance.

    Keywords: language switching, switch costs, Emotion priming, Inhibitory Control, inhibition modulation

    Received: 22 Jan 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Liu, Liu and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yun Wang, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.