Task-dependent neural correlates of L2 emotion-label versus emotion-laden word processing: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Abstract

The present study examined how task demands modulate neural activations during the processing of emotion-label words (words describing emotional states) and emotion-laden words (words triggering emotions through connotations) in a second language (L2). To this end, we directly compared behavioral and electrophysiological responses in late Chinese-English bilinguals when the words’ affective information was task-relevant (emotional categorization task, ECT) versus task-irrelevant (emotional Stroop task, EST). Our results revealed the modulation of emotion word type and valence on L2 emotion word processing. Specifically, negative emotion-laden words exhibited slower response times, and positive emotion-label words elicited larger Late Positive Complex amplitudes. Notably, these effects were observed exclusively within the task where the emotional dimension of the stimuli was task-relevant, that is, when participants explicitly determined the word valence. Taken together, our study highlights the potential task-dependent nature of the effects of emotion word type and valence in late bilinguals’ L2, suggesting that assumptions about the universality of such effects should be evaluated in light of task demands and language context.