Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning
Published on: January 29, 2020
The Effect of Emotional Valence on Auditory Word Recognition Memory in English as a Foreign Language
Francia Arriagada-Mödinger1, Roberto A Ferreira2
1Facultad de Educación, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
Abstract:
The present study investigated the effect of emotional valence on auditory word recognition memory in English as a foreign language. Participants included 48 native Spanish speakers whose foreign language was English. They viewed four emotionally negative, four positive, and four neutral videos that, in total, contained 48 emotionally valenced target words. After watching the videos, participants completed an auditory word recognition memory task where target words, and the same number of fillers, were presented. The results showed a statistically significant main effect of valence on both reaction times and accuracy. Positive words were recognised more accurately and faster than neutral and negative words, but no difference between neutral and negative stimuli was found. These findings fit in well within the gradient model of automatic vigilance, which implies that emotional valence has a monotonic effect on processing latencies during auditory recognition memory in a foreign language.
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Labeling Emotion
The Influence of Affect on Cognition
Factors Affecting Perception
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Elaborative Rehearsals
The effectiveness of...
Encoding
Automatic processing involves the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words, usually done without conscious...

