UC Irvine

Bilingual speakers constantly regulate the activation of their two languages, even when only one language is being used. Research on bilingual language regulation suggests that the characteristics of bilinguals’ interactional contexts shape how they engage domain-general cognitive mechanisms that support language regulation. Language, however, does not operate in an emotional void. Emotions can influence cognitive processes implicated in language regulation, while emotional processing itself may vary across a bilingual’s two languages and as a function of their language experiences. In this dissertation, we examine how emotional processing influences bilingual language regulation, as well as how bilingual language experiences may, in turn, shape emotional processing. The first study compared three groups of bilingual speakers with distinct language experiences and interactional contexts: Spanish-English late bilinguals in Mexico and two groups of heritage speakers (Spanish and Mandarin) in Southern California. Participants completed a series of language tasks and a language history questionnaire to measure their sensitivity to different behavioral indices of language regulation, including reversed dominance, block-order effects, and mixing costs. They also completed a cued language-switching task interleaved with emotion words to examine the effects of positive and negative words on subsequent language switching. Results revealed variation in these indices of language regulation across the three groups, supporting frameworks in which interactional context is proposed to shape bilingual language regulation. Although our results did not replicate prior findings of reduced switch costs following negative words, emotional information nevertheless influenced language production, suggesting that its effects on bilingual language regulation may extend beyond traditional measures of behavioral switch costs. The second study examined the relationship between emotion and language regulation in Spanish-English heritage bilinguals using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Participants completed an extended version of the emotion language switching task from the first study while EEG data was recorded. Event-related potentials were stimulus-locked to both the presentation of the emotion words and the picture naming trials in order to examine the temporal dynamics involved in both emotional processing and language regulation. Emotional word processing revealed that cross-linguistic differences in sensitivity to emotional valence appeared later in processing but only when considering language dominance. During language switching, effects of negative words on switch trials emerged across different stages of language switching including early engagement of cognitive control (N2), lexico-semantic processing (N400) and re-evaluation preceding production (LPC). Cross-linguistic differences in these emotion-related effects became particularly evident during later stages of the switching process. Taken together, these two studies highlight the role of language experience both on emotional processing, language regulation, and their intersection. Bilingual speakers in different interactional contexts showed different sensitivity to demands on language regulation as seen in study 1. While we failed to replicate prior findings on the effect of emotion on language switching using behavioral measures, ERP data from the second study revealed an effect of negative words on switch trials. The influence of emotions on language switching seems to unfold across multiple processes with cross-linguistic differences emerging in later stages of processing. Finally, our findings suggest that emotional processing is modulated by language experience which goes against traditional claims of emotional processing being constrained and unchanged in the native language.