Gao Shan, Zika Ondrej, Rogers Robert D, Thierry Guillaume
School of Foreign Languages and Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731 China.
Department of Psychology, Aberystwyth University, Ceredigion, SY23 3UX, United Kingdom.
J Neurosci. 2015 Apr 15;35(15):5983-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3622-14.2015.
Research into language-emotion interactions has revealed intriguing cognitive inhibition effects by emotionally negative words in bilinguals. Here, we turn to the domain of human risk taking and show that the experience of positive recency in games of chance-the "hot hand" effect-is diminished when game outcomes are provided in a second language rather than the native language. We engaged late Chinese-English bilinguals with "play" or "leave" decisions upon presentation of equal-odds bets while manipulating language of feedback and outcome value. When positive game outcomes were presented in their second language, English, participants subsequently took significantly fewer gambles and responded slower compared with the trials in which equivalent feedback was provided in Chinese, their native language. Positive feedback was identified as driving the cross-language difference in preference for risk over certainty: feedback for previous winning outcomes presented in Chinese increased subsequent risk taking, whereas in the English context no such effect was observed. Complementing this behavioral effect, event-related brain potentials elicited by feedback words showed an amplified response to Chinese relative to English in the feedback-related negativity window, indicating a stronger impact in the native than in the second language. We also observed a main effect of language on P300 amplitude and found it correlated with the cross-language difference in risk selections, suggesting that the greater the difference in attention between languages, the greater the difference in risk-taking behavior. These results provide evidence that the hot hand effect is at least attenuated when an individual operates in a non-native language.
对语言与情感互动的研究揭示了双语者中情感负面词汇有趣的认知抑制效应。在此，我们转向人类冒险领域，结果表明，当以第二语言而非母语呈现博彩游戏的结果时，机会游戏中积极近因效应（即“热手”效应）会减弱。我们让晚期中英双语者在面对等额赔率赌注时做出“玩”或“离开”的决定，同时操纵反馈语言和结果价值。当积极的游戏结果以他们的第二语言英语呈现时，与以母语中文提供同等反馈的试验相比，参与者随后进行的赌博显著减少，反应也更慢。积极反馈被确定为驱动跨语言在风险偏好与确定性偏好上差异的因素：以中文呈现的先前获胜结果的反馈增加了后续的冒险行为，而在英语环境中未观察到这种效应。作为这种行为效应的补充，反馈词引发的事件相关脑电位在反馈相关负波窗口中显示出相对于英语对中文的放大反应，表明母语比第二语言的影响更强。我们还观察到语言对P300波幅的主要影响，并发现它与风险选择中的跨语言差异相关，这表明语言之间注意力差异越大，冒险行为差异就越大。这些结果提供了证据，表明当个体使用非母语操作时，“热手”效应至少会减弱。
