Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T17:26:34.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotion-memory effects in bilingual speakers: A levels-of-processing approach*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

AYSE AYÇIÇEGI-DINN  and
CATHERINE L. CALDWELL-HARRIS
AYSE AYÇIÇEGI-DINN
Affiliation:
Istanbul University
CATHERINE L. CALDWELL-HARRIS*
Affiliation:
Boston University
*
Address for correspondence: Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris, Psychology Department, Boston University, 64 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Emotion-memory effects occur when emotion words are more frequently recalled than neutral words. Bilingual speakers report that taboo terms and emotional phrases generate a stronger emotional response when heard or spoken in their first language. This suggests that the basic emotion-memory will be stronger for words presented in a first language. Turkish–English bilinguals performed a deep processing task (emotional-intensity rating) or shallow processing task (counting letter features) and two additional deep processing tasks (translation and word association) on five categories of words (taboo words, reprimands, positive words, negative words, and neutral words), followed by a surprise recall task. Reprimands had the highest recall in English (L2), which may be a novelty effect. If reprimands are set aside, then overall emotion-memory effects were similar in the two languages, with taboo words having the highest recall, followed by positive words. Negative words had no recall advantage over neutral words, an unexpected finding. Results indicate that emotional attributes of words are equally available to boost memory in a first and second language in both shallow and deep processing tasks, athough some task-specific effects did occur.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 291 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This work was supported by the Research Fund of the University of Istanbul, Project Number: UDP-232/26022004.

References

Altarriba, J. & Santiago-Rivera, A. L. (1994). Current perspectives on using linguistic and cultural factors in counseling the hispanic client. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25, 388–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anooshian, J. L. & Hertel, T. P. (1994). Emotionality in free recall: Language specificity in bilingual memory. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 503–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayçiçegi[-Dinn], A. & Harris [Caldwell-Harris], C. L. (2004). Bilinguals’ recall and recognition of emotion words. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 977–987.Google Scholar
Berny, T. D., Cooper, R. L. & Fishman, J. A. (1968). Semantic independence and degree of bilingualism in two Puerto Rican communities. Revista Interamericana de Psicologia, 2, 289–294.Google Scholar
Caldwell-Harris, C. L. & Ayçiçegi-Dinn, A. (2009). Emotion and lying in a non-native language. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 71, 193–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. D., MacWhinney, B., Flatt, M. R. & Provost, J. (1993). PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 25, 257–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craik, F. I. & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Groot, A. M. B. (1992). Determinants of word translation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 1001–1018.Google Scholar
Delgado, P., Guerrero, G., Goggin, J. P. & Ellis, B. B. (1999). Self-assessment of linguistic skills by bilingual Hispanics. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21, 31–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delis, D. C., Kaplan, E. & Kramer, J. H. (2001). Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2004a). Blistering barnacles! What language do multilinguals swear in?! Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 5, 83–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2004b). The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25, 204–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2006). Expressing anger in multiple languages. In Pavlenko (ed.), pp. 118–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eilola, T. M., Havelka, J. & Dinkar, S. (2007). Emotional activation in the first and second language. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 1064–1076.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, P. C., Stephenson, C. M. E. & Carpenter, T. A. (2003). Regional brain activations predicting subsequent memory success: An event-related fMRI study of the influence of encoding tasks. Cortex, 39, 1009–1026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzalez-Reigosa, F. (1976). The anxiety arousing effect of taboo words in bilinguals. In Spielberger, C. D. & Diaz-Guerrero, R. (eds.), Cross-cultural anxiety, pp. 89–105. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1986). Control, activation and resource: A framework and a model for the control of speech in bilinguals. Brain and Language, 27, 210–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris [Caldwell-Harris], C. L. (2004). Bilingual speakers in the lab: Psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25, 223–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris [Caldwell-Harris], C. L., Ayçiçegi[-Dinn], A. & Gleason, J. B. (2003). Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first than in a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 4, 561–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris [Caldwell-Harris], C. L., Gleason, J. B. & Ayçiçegi[-Dinn], A. (2006). When is a first language more emotional? Psychophysiological evidence from bilingual speakers. In Pavlenko, A. (ed.), Languages and emotions of bilingual people, pp. 257–283. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Iyer, G., Saccuman, C., Bates, E. & Wulfeck, B. (2001). A study of age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings in adults. Center for Research in Language Newsletter (vol. 13, No. 2). La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego. ftp://ftp.crl.ucsd.edu/pub/newsletter/pdf/13-2.pdf (retrieved May 19, 2009).Google Scholar
Izura, C. & Ellis, A. W. (2002). Age of acquistion effects in word recognition and production in first and second languages. Psicologia, 23, 245–281.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L. L. & Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110, 306–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jay, T., Caldwell-Harris, C. L. & King, K. (2008). Recalling taboo and nontaboo words. American Journal of Psychology, 121, 83–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keatley, C. W. (1992) History of bilingualism research in cognitive psychology. In Harris, R. J. (ed.), Cognitive processing in bilinguals, pp. 15–49. Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F. & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 149–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKay, D. G. & Ahmetzanov, M. V. (2005). Emotion, memory, and attention in the taboo Stroop paradigm: An experimental analog of flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 16, 25–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marian, V. & Kaushanskaya, M. (2004). Self-construal and emotion in bicultural bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 190–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, M. A., Einstein, G. O., DeLosh, E. L., May, C. P. & Brady, P. (1995). The bizarreness effect: It's not surprising, it's complex. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 422–435.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (2005). Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (ed.) (2006). Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport, D. (1942). Emotions and memory. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Reber, R., Perrig, W., Flammer, A. & Walter, D. (1994). Levels of processing and memory for emotional words. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 53, 78–85.Google Scholar
Rosselli, M. & Ardila, A. (2002). A cross-linguistic comparison of verbal fluency tests. International Journal of Neuroscience, 112, 759–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, D. C. & Friendly, M. (1986). Predicting which words get recalled: Measures of free recall, availability, goodness, emotionality, and pronunciability for 925 nouns. Memory and Cognition, 14, 79–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schrauf, R. W. (2000). Bilingual autobiographical memory: Experimental studies and clinical cases. Culture and Psychology, 6, 387–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrauf, R. W. & Rubin, D. C. (2004). The ‘language’ and ‘feel’ of bilingual memory: Mnemonic traces. Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 5, 41–58.Google Scholar
Schrauf, R. W. & Durazo-Arvizu, R. (2006). Bilingual autobiographical memory and emotion: Theory and methods. In Pavlenko (ed.), pp. 284–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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, 1077–1090.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toglia, M. P. & Battig, W. F. (1978). Handbook of semantic word norms. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tzelgov, J., Henik, A. & Leiser, D. (1990). Controlling Stroop interference: Evidence from a bilingual task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 760–771.Google Scholar
Vilkki, J. U. (1987). Incidental and deliberate memory for words and faces after focal cerebral lesions. Neuropsychologia, 25, 221–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zied, K. M, Philippe, A. & Karine, P. (2004) Bilingualism and adult differences in inhibitory mechanisms: Evidence from a bilingual stroop task. Brain and Cognition, 54, 254–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar