Department of English Linguistics, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
Cogn Emot. 2021 Sep;35(6):1121-1135. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1929853. Epub 2021 May 27.
Unbalanced bilinguals react differently to emotional stimuli in their first (L1) and second (L2) language. However, the size and direction of the emotion difference varies across emotions and tasks, so that its causes are controversial. Therefore, we investigated if the attentional resources bilinguals allocate to emotion processing moderate their language-dependent emotions. In two experiments, we crossed language and emotion regulation. Study 1 compared effects of distraction and concentration on bilingual emotion-word valence ratings. Study 2 induced positive emotion-focused rumination (or not) prior to a simulated, video-based online-dating activity. It measured emotional attraction to dating candidates speaking the participant's L1 or L2 in pupillary, eye-fixation and self-report responses. The studies found reduced L2 emotions when emotion processing was distracted or when its level was low to start with. Yet, if bilinguals concentrated or had ruminated on their emotions, their self-reported and physiological emotionality was comparable or even stronger in L2, relative to L1. The findings suggest that bilinguals' language-dependent emotions vary with differential language-processing automaticity. We propose that the observed emotion-regulation moderation generates further testable predictions about where and when language choice is relevant for bilinguals' emotions.
非平衡双语者在其第一语言（L1）和第二语言（L2）中对情绪刺激的反应不同。然而，情绪和任务的不同导致情绪差异的大小和方向也不同，因此其原因存在争议。因此，我们研究了双语者对情绪处理的注意力资源是否会调节其语言相关的情绪。在两项实验中，我们交叉了语言和情绪调节。研究 1 比较了分心和集中对双语情绪词效价评定的影响。研究 2 在模拟的基于视频的在线约会活动之前，诱导积极的情绪聚焦沉思（或不）。它通过瞳孔、眼动和自我报告反应来衡量对说参与者的 L1 或 L2 的约会对象的情绪吸引力。这两项研究发现，当情绪处理被分散注意力或情绪初始水平较低时，L2 的情绪会减少。然而，如果双语者集中注意力或对情绪进行沉思，那么他们在 L2 中的自我报告和生理情绪与在 L1 中的情绪相比，要么相当，要么甚至更强。这些发现表明，双语者的语言相关情绪随语言处理的自动性不同而变化。我们提出，观察到的情绪调节调节产生了关于语言选择何时何地对双语者的情绪相关的进一步可测试预测。
