# The effect of emotional valence on concrete and abstract words in L2 lexical processing among Chinese–English learners

## TL;DR

The study explores how emotions affect processing of concrete and abstract words in Chinese-English bilinguals.

## Contribution

It reveals that emotional valence has distinct effects on concrete and abstract word processing in L2 learners.

## Key findings

- Emotion advantage is stronger for concrete words in accuracy but not reaction time.
- Abstract words are processed faster and more accurately overall.
- Emotional information compensates for limited sensorimotor grounding in abstract words.

## Abstract

Emotional valence influences word processing, and this effect is modulated by word concreteness, but findings remain inconsistent in L2 contexts—especially among Chinese-English learners.

Based on the Embodied Cognition Theory, we adopted a 3 (valence: positive/neutral/negative) × 2 (concreteness: abstract/concrete) mixed-factorial design and a lexical decision task to test 57 late Chinese-English bilinguals.

(1) The valence × concreteness interaction was significant in accuracy (emotion advantage was larger for concrete than abstract words) but not in reaction time; (2) The main effect of concreteness was significant: abstract words were processed faster and more accurately than concrete words.

Emotional valence exerts functionally different effects on L2 concrete/abstract word processing—concrete words benefit more from emotional facilitation via sensorimotor connections, while abstract words rely on emotional information to compensate for limited sensorimotor grounding.