The Emotionality Of Words Modulates The Recognition Of Semantic Transparency During Chinese Reading:Evidence From Eye Movements

Semantic transparency plays an important role in compound word processing.Researchers have found that there is an effect of semantic transparency on the recognition of the compound words.Compared to opaque words,transparent words are more easily processed in alphabetic languages and Chinese.With the development of Cognitive neuroscience,more and more researchers focus on the relationship of emotional stimulus and language,and then the researches on emotional words catch more attention.What's more,researchers have found emotional information can modulate the processing of the word production.However,it is still not known whether semantic transparency and emotionality influence word recognition in Chinese reading as a matter of course.In our study,we combine the two important factors in word processing,using eye-movement technology.The researchers usually use the behavioral and EEG methods to research on the emotional words.But we use eye-movement technology,which has more ecology validity so that participants can read in a more natural way in the laboratory.There are two experiments in the study.The first one is a 2(emotion:positive&negative)x 2(transparency:transparent&opaque)within-subject experiment.The target words in each set are inserted into sentence frame identical up to the target word.The aim is to explore how the emotion and transparency influence the word processing.The second one is a 2(emotion:positive&negative)x 2(transparency:transparent&opaque)x 2(age:old&young)mixed experimental design.The within-subject variables are emotion and transparency.The between-subject variable is age.We aim to explore whether the effect of emotion and transparency on word processing can be influenced by age.Under the conditions of this study,the following are conclusions:1.There is a negative attention bias in word processing.The fixation duration on negative word is significantly longer than the positive words.2.There is an effect of semantic transparency on the recognition of the compound words in Chinese.Compared to opaque words,transparent words are more easily processed.3.Emotional words can modulate semantic transparency in Chinese reading.For positive words,fixation duration on transparent words is significantly shorter than that on opaque words.But for negative words,there is no significant difference in fixation duration on transparent and opaque words.4.Compared with young people,the old have more difficulty in reading.The fixation duration is longer for old people.5.Chinese old people employ a more careful reading strategy by regressing more.