TITLE:
Different language experience does not modulate preconscious processing of affect: Detection of words
and faces by deaf and hearing individuals.
SUBMISSION TYPE: POSTER
ABSTRACT:
Recent studies employing continuous flash suppression (CFS, a variant of binocular rivalry) have
established for the first time that emotional associations of words are preconsciously processed (Vinson
et al., 2011), just as has been previously established for faces (e.g. Jiang & He, 2006). Such a finding
indicates that language is embodied not only in our sensory-motor experience, but also in our emotions.
In the present study, we asked whether words in a L2 would be preconsciously processed to the same
extent as in a L1. In particular, we compare the processing of written English words and faces by
speakers of English and deaf native signers of British Sign Language (BSL) who learnt written English
later.
Each participant performed a location decision (“is the stimulus presented above or below a fixation
point?”) for a set of happy, angry and neutral faces in one condition and for a set of positive, negative
and neutral words in another condition, using CFS to render the stimuli invisible at the beginning of a
trial. We measured how long it takes for a suppressed face/word to emerge to consciousness. Subjects
responded as soon as becoming aware of the test stimulus. Our previous work showed that angry faces
and negative words take longer to emerge from suppression than neutral or positive stimuli, which can
be accounted for in terms of a freezing reflex. Here we ask whether the same pattern of results is found
for L2 deaf signers, for words and for faces. If we find that L2 signers do not show any effect for words
in the face of a reliable effect for faces we can conclude that the degree of embodiment is reduced for a
second language. However, were we to find the same pattern of results for both groups, we may
conclude that language is always embodied regardless of its status as L1 or L2. We also may expect
that signers process faces differently to non-signers, as they habitually pay attention to the face when
processing language because of mouthing and facial grammatical marking in BSL.
For both faces and words, we found that both speakers and signers showed the same pattern of results:
angry faces and negative words took longer to emerge from suppression. Moreover, the magnitude of
the effects did not differ across the two groups. For word stimuli, these results indicate that the same
deep degree of embodiment is found in both L1 and L2, contra to views in which L2 should be less
embodied because mediated via L1. For faces, the results suggest also that preconscious processing of
affect is not modified by experience with a sign language, nor by deafness.
REFERENCES:
Jiang Y & He S (2006). Cortical responses to invisible faces: Dissociating subsystems for facialinformation processing. Current Biology 16: 2023-2029.
Vinson D, Anderson A, Ratoff W, Bahrami B & Vigliocco G (2011). Slow to anger: Emergence of
emotionally loaded words and faces from interocular suppression. Poster presented at the annual
Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston MA.