The Effects of Emotional Valence on the Processing of Concrete and Abstract L2 Words: An E-Prime Study

This study aims to investigate the effects of emotional valence and word concreteness on L2 lexical processing among Chinese English learners. A lexical decision task was employed under a 2 (concreteness: concrete vs. abstract) × 3 (emotional valence: positive vs. neutral vs. negative) within-subjects design. Reaction times and accuracy rates were recorded from 50 Chinese non-English major university students. The results reveal that: 1) emotional words (both positive and negative) are processed more efficiently than neutral words, demonstrating a stable emotion effect; 2) an interaction between emotional valence and concreteness is observed, indicating that the facilitating effect of emotion is more pronounced for concrete words; 3) no “abstractness effect” is found, as concrete words are generally processed more efficiently than abstract words overall. These findings suggest that the influence of emotional valence on L2 lexical processing is modulated by word concreteness. The results provide stronger support for the multimodal embodied cognition view, positing that the synergistic activation of sensorimotor and emotional experiences underpins the processing advantage of concrete emotional words in a second language. This study offers empirical evidence for understanding the embodied nature of L2 lexical representation.