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Category: Project

Description: Positive and negative moods tend to have differential effects on lexico-semantic processing in the native language (L1). Though accumulating evidence points to dampened sensitivity to affective stimuli in the non-native language (L2), little is known about the effects of positive and negative moods on L2 processing. Here, we show that lexico-semantic processing is differently affected by positive and negative moods, yet only in L1. Unbalanced Polish–English bilinguals made mean-ingfulness judgments on L1 and L2 sentences during two EEG recording sessions, featuring either positive or negative mood-inducing films. We observed a reduced N1 (lexical processing) for a negative than positive mood in L2 only, a reduced N2 (lexico-semantic processing) for negative than positive mood in L1 only, a reduced N400 (semantic processing) for meaningless than mean-ingful L1 sentences in a positive mood only, and an enhanced late positive complex (semantic in-tegration and re-analysis) for L2 compared to L1 meaningful sentence in a negative mood only. Altogether, these results suggest that positive and negative moods affect lexical, lexico-semantic, and semantic processing differently in L1 and L2. Our observations are consistent with previous accounts of mood-dependent processing and emotion down-regulation observed in bilinguals.