Exploring the role of executive functions in Chinese-English bilinguals’ emotional word comprehension during language switching

ABSTRACT

Switching between languages requires the participation of executive functions (EFs) which comprise both the ‘hot’ affective aspects (hot EFs) and the ‘cool’ cognitive aspects (cool EFs). However, the role of these EFs in language switching is not clear. This study employed a word valence categorization task to explore the effects of hot (i.e. emotional valence and emotional congruency) and cool (i.e. inhibitory control ability, IC ability) EFs on high- and low-IC Chinese-English bilinguals’ language switching costs. The results showed smaller language switching costs for positive than negative emotional words, for emotional incongruent than congruent trials, for positive than negative emotional words in emotional congruent trials and for negative emotional words in emotional incongruent than congruent trials. Moreover, hot and cool EFs worked interactively, with larger language switching costs for negative emotional words and the same pattern in emotional congruent trials for high-IC participants over low-IC ones. These results indicate that various aspects of hot EFs affect language switching costs individually and interactively, while also modulate the effects of cool EF on language switching costs during Chinese-English emotional word comprehension. These findings have implications for extending the Bilingual Interactive Activation plus (BIA+) model by incorporating both hot and cool EFs.

KEYWORDS:

• Hot and cool EFs
• language switching costs
• emotional valence
• emotional congruency
• IC ability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [grant number 24NDJC068YB]; The Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang [grant number SJWY2022010]; The General Scientific Research Project of Zhejiang Provincial Education Department [grant number Y202249103]; The Double First-Class Disciplines Major Project of Beijing Foreign Studies University [grant number 2022SYLZD008].

Notes on contributors

Jiao Zhang

Jiao Zhang is a lecturer at Ningbo University. Her research focuses on the relationship between cognition and emotion, especially the relationship between executive functions and emotional word switching.

Lin Fan

Lin Fan is a professor in the Research Institute of Foreign Languages at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research centers around the intricate relationship between language and emotion, the cognitive processes involved in discourse comprehension, as well as code-switching phenomena. Her dedication to these areas of study showcases her commitment to expanding our understanding of language and cognition.

Jia Liu

Jia Liu is a lecturer at Hebei Normal University. Her research interests focus on the relationship among language, emotion, and attention, especially the effects of attention on emotional word processing.