Abstract
Research focused on the study of emotion, specifically how it is mentally represented in the human memory system, is of great importance within the study of cognition. The current chapter will examine the factors that make emotion words unique, as compared to other word types (e.g., concrete and abstract words) that have traditionally been of interest. In particular, key findings from studies where cognitive paradigms were used to explore emotion are emphasized (e.g., Stroop tasks, priming, implicit memory tests, eye tracking, etc.). This chapter will describe the factors that influence how those who know and use more than one language process and express emotion, and the role that language selection plays on the level of emotion that is activated and displayed. Finally, cross-cultural differences in emotion are examined, primarily as they relate to differences in individualistic and collectivistic contexts.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Altarriba, J.: Does cariño equal “liking”? A theoretical approach to conceptual nonequivalence between languages. Int. J. Bilingualism 7, 305–322 (2003)
Altarriba, J.: Emotion and mood: over 120 years of contemplation and exploration in The American Journal of Psychology. Am. J. Psych. 125, 409–422 (2012)
Altarriba, J.: Emotion, memory, and bilingualism. In: Heredia, R.R., Altarriba, J. (eds.) Foundations of bilingual memory, pp. 185–203. Springer Science + Business Media LLC, New York, NY (2014)
Altarriba, J., Basnight-Brown, D.M.: The representation of emotion vs. emotion-laden words in English and Spanish in the affective Simon task. Int. J. Bilingualism 15, 310–328 (2011)
Altarriba, J., Basnight-Brown, D.M.: The acquisition of concrete, abstract, and emotion words in a second language. Int. J. Bilingualism 16, 446–452 (2012)
Altarriba, J., Bauer, L.M.: The distinctiveness of emotion concepts: a comparison between emotion, abstract, and concrete words. Am. J. Psychol. 117(3), 389–410 (2004)
Altarriba, J., Bauer, L.M., Benvenuto, C.: Concreteness, context availability, and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words. Behavior Res. Methods Instrum. Comput. 31(4), 578–602 (1999)
Altarriba, J., Santiago-Rivera, A.: Current perspectives on using linguistic and cultural factors in counseling the Hispanic client. Professional Psych.: Res. Practice 25, 388–397 (1994)
Anooshian, L.J., Hertel, P.T.: Emotionality in free recall: language specificity in bilingual memory. Cogn. Emot. 8, 503–514 (1994)
Basnight-Brown, D.M., Altarriba, J.: Number of translation differences in Spanish and Chinese bilinguals: The difficulty in finding a direct translation for emotion words. In: Cooper, S., Ratele, K. (eds.) Psychology serving humanity, vol. II, pp. 240–251. Taylor & Francis, New York, NY (2014)
Basnight-Brown, D.M., Altarriba, J.: Multiple translations in bilingual memory: processing differences across concrete, abstract, and emotion words. J. Psycholinguist. Res. 45, 1219–1245 (2016)
Caldwell-Harris, C.L.: Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: implications for everyday life. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 24, 214–219 (2015)
Colbeck, K.L., Bowers, J.S.: Blinded by taboo words in L1 but not L2. Emotion 12, 217–222 (2012)
Comanaru, R.S., Dewaele, J.-M.: A bright future for interdisciplinary multilingualism research. Int. J. Mutlilingualism 12, 404–418 (2015)
Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., Keysar, B.: Your morals depend on language. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 9, 1–7 (2014)
Dewaele, J.-M.: The emotional force of swear words and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. J. Multilingual Multicultural Dev. 25, 204–222 (2004)
Dewaele, J.-M.: The emotional weight of I love you in multilinguals’ languages. J. Pragmat. 40, 1753–1780 (2008)
Dewaele, J.-M.: From obscure echo to language of the heart: Multilinguals’ language choices for emotional inner speech. J. Pragmat. 87, 1–17 (2015)
Dewaele, J.-M.: British ‘bollocks’ versus American ‘jerk’: do native British English speakers swear more—or differently—compared to American English speakers? Appl. Linguistics Rev. 6, 309–339 (2015)
Dewaele, J.-M., Pavlenko, A.: Emotion vocabulary in interlanguage. Lang. Learn. 52, 263–322 (2002)
Dewaele, J.-M., Qaddourah, I.: Language choice in expressing anger among Arab-English Londoners. Russ. J. Linguist. 19, 82–100 (2015)
Dodds, P.S. et al.: Human language reveals a universal positivity bias. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 1073, 1–6 (2015)
Du, S., Tao, Y., Martinez, A.M.: Compound facial expressions of emotion. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 1454–1462 (2014)
Eilola, T.M., Havelka, J., Sharma, D.: Emotional activation in the first and second language. Cogn. Emot. 21, 1064–1076 (2007)
Ekman, P.: Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life. Times Books, New York (2003)
Ekman, P., Friesen, W.V.: Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 17, 124–129 (1971)
Elfenbein, H.A., Ambady, N.: On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: a meta-analysis. Psychol. Bull. 128, 203–235 (2002)
Fan, S.P., Liberman, Z., Keysar, B., Kinzler, K.D.: The exposure advantage: early exposure to a multilingual environment promotes effective communication. Psych. Sci., 1–10 (2015)
Goleman, D.: Emotional intelligence. Bantam Books, New York (1995)
Harris, C.: Bilingual speakers in the lab: psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity. J. Multilingual Multicultural Dev. 25, 223–247 (2004)
Harris, C.L., Ayçiçeği, A., Gleason, J.B.: Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first than in a second language. Appl. Psycholinguist. 4, 561–578 (2003)
Harris, C.L., Gleason, J.B., Ayçiçeği, A.: When is a first language more emotional? Psychophysiological evidence from bilingual speakers. In: Pavlenko, A. (ed.) Bilingual minds: emotional experience, expression, and representation, pp. 257–283. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, UK (2005)
Jacobi, L.L.: Perceptions of profanity: How race, gender, and expletive choice affect perceived offensiveness. North Am. J. Psych. 16, 261–276 (2014)
Jia, G., Aaronson, D., Wu, Y.: Long-term language attainment of bilingual immigrants: predictive variables and language group differences. Appl. Psycholinguist. 23, 599–621 (2002)
Kazanas, S.A., Altarriba, J.: Emotion word processing: Effects of word type and valence in Spanish-English bilinguals. J. Psycholinguist. Res. 45, 395–406 (2016)
Knickerbocker, H., Altarriba, J.: Bilingualism and the impact of emotion: the role of experience, memory, and sociolinguistic factors. In: Cook, V., Bassetti, B. (eds.) Language and bilingual cognition, pp. 453–477. Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis, New York (2011)
Knickerbocker, H., Altarriba, J.: Differential repetition blindness with emotion and emotion-laden word types. Visual Cognition 21, 599–627 (2013)
Knickerbocker, H., Johnson, R.L., Altarriba, J.: Emotion effects during reading: influence of an emotion target word on eye movements and processing. Cogn. Emot. 29, 784–806 (2015)
Kousta, S.T., Vinson, D.P., Vigliocco, G.: Emotion words, regardless of polarity, have a processing advantage over neutral words. Cognition 112, 473–481 (2009)
Larsen, R.J., Mercer, K.A., Balota, D.A.: Lexical characteristics of words used in Stroop experiments. Emotion 6, 62–72 (2006)
Leblebiçi-Basar, D., Altarriba, J.: The role of imagery and emotion in the translation of concepts into product form. Des. J. 16, 295–314 (2013) doi: 10.2752/175630613X13660502571787
Martinez-Miranda, J., Aldea, A.: Emotions in human and artificial intelligence. Comput. Hum. Behav. 21, 323–341 (2005)
McKenna, F.P., Sharma, D.: Intrusive cognitions: an investigation of the emotional stroop task. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 21, 1595–1607 (1995)
Marian, V., Kaushanskaya, M.: Self-construal and emotion in bicultural bilinguals. J. Mem. Lang. 51, 190–201 (2004)
Marian, V., Neisser, U.: Language-dependent recall of autobiographical memories. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 129, 361–368 (2000)
Marmolejo, G., Diliberto-Macaluso, K.A., Altarriba, J.: False memory in bilinguals: does switching languages increase false memories? Am. J. Psychol. 122, 1–16 (2009)
Matsumoto, D., Yoo, S.H., Fontaine, J., Altarriba, J., et al.: Mapping expressive differences around the world: the relationship between emotional display rules and individualism versus collectivism. J. Cross Cult. Psychol. 39, 55–74 (2008)
Matsumoto, D., Yoo, S.H., Fontaine, J., Alexandre, J., Altarriba, J., et al.: Hypocrisy or maturity? culture and context differentiation. Eur. J. Pers. 23, 251–264 (2009)
Murata, A., Moser, J.S., Kitayama, S.: Culture shapes electrocortical responses during emotion suppression. Social Cognitive & Affective Neurosci 8, 595–601 (2013)
Nasrallah, M., Carmel, D., Lavie, N.: Murder, she wrote: enhanced sensitivity to negative word valence. Emotion 9, 609–618 (2009)
Ohira, H., Nomura, M., Ichikawa, N., et al.: Association of neural and physiological responses during voluntary emotion suppression. NeuroImage 29, 721–733 (2006)
Park, J., Kitayama, S., Markus, H.R.…et al.: Social status and anger expression: the cultural moderation hypothesis. Emotion 13, 1122–1131 (2013)
Pavlenko, A.: Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA (2005)
Pavlenko, A.: Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11, 147–164 (2008)
Pavlenko, A., Driagina, V.: Russian emotion vocabulary in American learners’ narratives. Mod. Language J. 91, 213–234 (2007)
Puntoni, S., de Langhe, B., van Osselaer, S.: Bilingualism and the emotional intensity of advertising language. J. Consumer Res. 35, 1012–1025 (2009)
Robinson, C.J., Altarriba, J.: Culture and language processing. In: Sharifian, F. (ed.) The Routledge handbook of language and culture, pp. 240–252. Routledge, New York, NY (2015)
Russell, J.A.: Culture and the categorization of emotions. Psychol. Bull. 110, 426–450 (1991)
Santiago-Rivera, A., Altarriba, J., Poll, N., Gonzalez-Miller, N., Cragun, C.: Therapists’ views on working with bilingual Spanish-English speaking clients: a qualitative investigation. Professional Psych.: R. Practice 40, 436–443 (2009)
Scott, G.G., O’Donnell, P.J., Sereno, S.C.: Emotion words affect eye fixations during reading. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 38, 783–792 (2012)
Sheikh, N.A., Titone, D.A.: Sensorimotor and linguistic information attenuate emotional word processing benefits: an eye movement study. Emotion 13, 1107–1121 (2013)
Stroop, J.R.: Studies in interference in serial-verbal reactions. J. Exp. Psychol. 18, 643–662 (1935)
Sutton, T.M., Altarriba, J.: The automatic activation and perception of emotion in word processing: evidence from a modified dot probe paradigm. J. Cognitive Psych. 23, 736–747 (2011)
Sutton, T.M., Altarriba, J.: Color associations to emotion and emotion-laden words: a collection of norms for stimulus construction and selection. Behavior Res. Methods (2015). doi: 10.3758/s13428-015-0598-8
Sutton, T.M., Altarriba, J., Gianico, J.L., Basnight-Brown, D.M.: Emotional stroop effects in monolingual and bilingual speakers. Cogn. Emot. 21, 1077–1090 (2007)
Williams, J.M.G., Mathews, A., MacLeod, C.: The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychol. Bull. 120, 3–24 (1996)
Wilson, J.: Happily Disgusted (April, 2014). CNN.com
Zhu, Y., Zhang, L., Fan, J., Han, S.: Neural basis of cultural influence on self-representation. NeuroImage 34, 1310–1316 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Basnight-Brown, D.M., Altarriba, J. (2018). The Influence of Emotion and Culture on Language Representation and Processing. In: Faucher, C. (eds) Advances in Culturally-Aware Intelligent Systems and in Cross-Cultural Psychological Studies. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol 134. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67024-9_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67024-9_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67022-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67024-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)