The Effect of Emotional Valence on Auditory Word Recognition Memory in English as a Foreign Language

The present study investigated the effect of emotional valence on auditory word recognition memory in English as a foreign language. Participants included 48 native Spanish speakers whose foreign language was English. They viewed four emotionally negative, four positive, and four neutral videos that, in total, contained 48 emotionally valenced target words. After watching the videos, participants completed an auditory word recognition memory task where target words, and the same number of fillers, were presented. The results showed a statistically significant main effect of valence on both reaction times and accuracy. Positive words were recognised more accurately and faster than neutral and negative words, but no difference between neutral and negative stimuli was found. These findings fit in well within the gradient model of automatic vigilance, which implies that emotional valence has a monotonic effect on processing latencies during auditory recognition memory in a foreign language.