Date of Award
1-1-2015
Language
English
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School/Department
Department of Psychology
Program
Cognitive Psychology
Content Description
1 online resource (ii, 77 pages) : color illustrations.
Dissertation/Thesis Chair
Jeanette Altarriba
Committee Members
Maurice Westmoreland
Keywords
emotion, language, lexical decision, word type, Language and emotions, Bilingualism, Left and right (Psychology), Cerebral dominance, Brain
Subject Categories
Cognitive Psychology | Psychology | Reading and Language
Abstract
Emotion representation in monolingual speakers is complex, and for bilinguals the relationship between emotion and language can be even more intriguing. The present study examined reactions to words of six types, including positive, negative, and neutral words varying in concreteness. Words and nonwords were intermixed in a lexical decision task using hemifield presentation. In Experiment 1, participants were English monolinguals and all stimuli were presented in English. In Experiment 2, participants were Spanish-English bilinguals who were presented with both English and Spanish stimuli. Results revealed a general left hemisphere advantage. Overall, reaction times for positive words were faster than for negative or neutral words and this effect varied by hemifield of presentation. These results support a valence hypothesis of specialized processing in the left hemisphere of the brain for positive emotions and the right hemisphere for negative emotions. However, this pattern of emotion representation in the brain was found for bilingual participants only in their first language (L1), despite high proficiency in their second language, suggesting a unique representation of emotion in a bilingual speaker’s L1.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Jennifer Mary, "Hemispheric specialization for emotion within first and second languages : emotion word processing in monolingual and bilingual speakers" (2015). Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024). 1452.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/legacy-etd/1452