ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
The effect of emotional valence on concrete and abstract words in L2 lexical processing among Chinese-English learners
Ying Zhang 1
Zu Rui Zhang 2
1. Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China
2. QINHUANGDAO OPEN UNIVERSITY, Qinhuangdao,Hebei, China
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Abstract
Emotional valence is widely reported to influence word processing, and this influence is often modulated by word concreteness—though it remains inconsistent in existing research. Previous empirical evidence in L2 (second language) contexts—particularly among Chinese-English learners—remains scarce. Based on the Embodied Cognition Theory, this study investigates the interaction of emotional valence and concreteness in the processing of L2 concrete and abstract words using a highly controlled lexical decision task. The results showed that: (1) The interaction of emotion and concreteness was not significant in reaction time, but significant in accuracy rate, and this emotion advantage was significantly larger in concrete than in abstract words, with the lowest accuracy rate in neutral concrete words; (2) The main effect of concreteness was significant: abstract words were processed faster than concrete words, that is, the reaction time of abstract words was significantly shorter and the accuracy rate was significantly higher than that of concrete words. The findings suggest that emotional valence may be functionally different in the way it affects the processing of L2 concrete and abstract words. The paper analyzes and interprets the research results based on embodied cognition theory.
Summary
Keywords
Chinese-English learners, concreteness, Embodied Cognition, emotional valence, L2 word processing
Received
12 December 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zu Rui Zhang
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