Name: investigating the effects of emotion on language learning using an odor-based induction method
Uploaded: 2020-01-14T11:18:22
Description: Emotion has important influence on language learning. However, the effect of emotion on syntactic learning has been relatively under-researched. Most ...

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Foreign Studies University and it was conducted in compliance with the guidelines for experiments with human subjects. Written informed consent was provided by all participants.
1. Preparation of olfactory stimuli
<ol>
	<li>As this study intends to adopt an odor-based approach to emotion induction, use apple flavor to induce positive emotion and indole to induce negative emotion. 
	NOTE: Prior literature showed that other smells...

<ol>
	<li>Arnold, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Affect in Language Learning. , (1999).</li><li>Egidi, G., Caramazza, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mood-dependent+integration+in+discourse+comprehension:+Happy+and+sad+moods+affect+consistency+processing+via+different+brain+networks.">Mood-dependent integration in discourse comprehension: Happy and sad moods affect consistency processing via different brain networks.</a> Neuroimage. 103, 20-32 (2014).</li><li>Giannopoulou, E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Tree or forest: The effect of mood on rule induction. , (2017).</li><li>Larsen, K. G. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> The relationship between mood and implicit learning. , (2017).</li><li>Liu, X., Xu, X., Wang, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+effect+of+emotion+on+morphosyntactic+learning+in+foreign+language+learners.">The effect of emotion on morphosyntactic learning in foreign language learners.</a> PLoS One. 13 (11), e0207592 (2018).</li><li>Beukeboom, C. J., Semin, G. R. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=How+mood+turns+on+language.">How mood turns on language.</a> Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 42, 553-566 (2006).</li><li>Chwilla, D. J., Virgillito, D., Vissers, C. T. W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+relationship+of+language+and+emotion:+N400+support+for+an+embodied+view+of+language+comprehension.">The relationship of language and emotion: N400 support for an embodied view of language comprehension.</a> Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23, 2400-2414 (2011).</li><li>Egidi, G., Nusbaum, H. C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotional+language+processing:+how+mood+affects+integration+processes+during+discourse+comprehension.">Emotional language processing: how mood affects integration processes during discourse comprehension.</a> Brain and Language. 122, 199-210 (2012).</li><li>Vissers, C. T. W., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+influence+of+mood+on+the+processing+of+syntactic+anomalies:+evidence+from+P600.">The influence of mood on the processing of syntactic anomalies: evidence from P600.</a> Neuropsychologia. 48, 3521-3531 (2010).</li><li>Vissers, C. T. W. M., Chwilla, U. G., Egger, J. I. M., Chwilla, D. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+interplay+between+mood+and+language+comprehension:+Evidence+from+P600+to+semantic+reversal+anomalies.">The interplay between mood and language comprehension: Evidence from P600 to semantic reversal anomalies.</a> Neuropsychologia. 51, 1027-1039 (2013).</li><li>Wang, L., Zhou, B., Zhou, W., Yang, Y. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Odor-induced+mood+state+modulates+language+comprehension+by+affecting+processing+strategies.">Odor-induced mood state modulates language comprehension by affecting processing strategies.</a> Scientific Reports. 6, 36229 (2016).</li><li>Polivy, J., Doyle, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Laboratory+induction+of+mood+states+through+the+reading+of+self-referent+mood+statements:+Affective+changes+or+demand+characteristics?.">Laboratory induction of mood states through the reading of self-referent mood statements: Affective changes or demand characteristics?.</a> Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 89, 286 (1980).</li><li>Westermann, R., Spies, K., Stahl, G., Hesse, F. W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Relative+effectiveness+and+validity+of+mood+induction+procedures:+A+meta-analysis.">Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis.</a> European Journal of Social Psychology. 26, 557-580 (1996).</li><li>Ehrlichman, H., Halpern, J. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Affect+and+memory:+effects+of+pleasant+and+unpleasant+odors+on+retrieval+of+happy+and+unhappy+memories.">Affect and memory: effects of pleasant and unpleasant odors on retrieval of happy and unhappy memories.</a> Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 55, 769 (1988).</li><li>Soudry, Y., Lemogne, C., Malinvaud, D., Consoli, S. M., Bonfils, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Olfactory+system+and+emotion:+common+substrates.">Olfactory system and emotion: common substrates.</a> European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Diseases. 128 (1), 18-23 (2011).</li><li>Wilson, D. A., Rennaker, R. L., Menini, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cortical+activity+evoked+by+odors.">Cortical activity evoked by odors.</a> The Neurobiology of Olfaction. , (2010).</li><li>Barbas, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Flow+of+information+for+emotions+through+temporal+and+orbito-frontal+pathways.">Flow of information for emotions through temporal and orbito-frontal pathways.</a> Journal of Anatomy. 211 (2), 237-249 (2007).</li><li>LoPresti, M. L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Working+memory+for+social+cues+recruits+orbitofrontal+cortex+and+amygdala:+a+functional+magnetic+resonance+imaging+study+of+delayed+matching+to+sample+for+emotional+expressions.">Working memory for social cues recruits orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of delayed matching to sample for emotional expressions.</a> Journal of Neuroscience. 28 (14), 3718-3728 (2008).</li><li>Wright, P., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Dissociated+responses+in+the+amygdala+and+orbitofrontal+cortex+to+bottom-up+and+top-down+components+of+emotional+evaluation.">Dissociated responses in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex to bottom-up and top-down components of emotional evaluation.</a> Neuroimage. 39 (2), 894-902 (2008).</li><li>Rempel-Clower, N. L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Role+of+orbitofrontal+cortex+connections+in+emotion.">Role of orbitofrontal cortex connections in emotion.</a> Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1121 (1), 72-86 (2007).</li><li>Negoias, S., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Reduced+olfactory+bulb+volume+and+olfactory+sensitivity+in+patients+with+acute+major+depression.">Reduced olfactory bulb volume and olfactory sensitivity in patients with acute major depression.</a> Neuroscience. 169, 415-421 (2010).</li><li>Croy, I., Olgun, S., Joraschky, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Basic+emotions+elicited+by+odors+and+pictures.">Basic emotions elicited by odors and pictures.</a> Emotion. 11 (6), 1331-1335 (2011).</li><li>Ehrlichman, H., Bastone, L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Olfaction+and+emotion.">Olfaction and emotion.</a> Science of Olfaction. , 410-438 (1992).</li><li>Lehrner, J., Marwinski, G., Lehr, S., Johren, P., Deecke, L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Ambient+odors+of+orange+and+lavender+reduce+anxiety+and+improve+mood+in+a+dental+office.">Ambient odors of orange and lavender reduce anxiety and improve mood in a dental office.</a> Physiology and Behavior. 86, 92-95 (2005).</li><li>R&#233;tiveau, A., Milliken, G. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Common+and+specific+effects+of+fine+fragrances+on+the+mood+of+women.">Common and specific effects of fine fragrances on the mood of women.</a> Journal of Sensory Studies. 19, 373-394 (2004).</li><li>Weber, S. T., Heuberger, E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+impact+of+natural+odors+on+affective+states+in+humans.">The impact of natural odors on affective states in humans.</a> Chemical Senses. 33, 441-447 (2008).</li><li>Damjanovic, L., Wilkinson, H., Lloyd, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Sweet+emotion:+The+role+of+odor-induced+context+in+the+search+advantage+for+happy+facial+expressions.">Sweet emotion: The role of odor-induced context in the search advantage for happy facial expressions.</a> Chemical Senses. 43 (3), 139-150 (2017).</li><li>Hodes, R., Cook, E. W., Lang, P. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Individual+differences+in+autonomic+response:+conditioned+association+or+conditioned+fear?.">Individual differences in autonomic response: conditioned association or conditioned fear?.</a> Psychophysiology. 22, 545-560 (1985).</li><li>Lang, P. J., Sidowski, J. B., Johnson, J. H., Williams, T. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Behavioral+treatment+and+bio-behavioral+assessment:+computer+applications.">Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment: computer applications.</a> Technology in Mental Health Care Delivery Systems. , 119-137 (1980).</li><li>Schwarz, N., Lange, P. A. V., Kruglanski, A. W., Higgins, E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Feelings-as-information+theory.">Feelings-as-information theory.</a> Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology. , 289-308 (2012).</li><li>Pishghadam, R., Jajarmi, H., Shayesteh, S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Conceptualizing+sensory+relativism+in+light+of+emotioncy:+A+movement+beyond+linguistic+relativism.">Conceptualizing sensory relativism in light of emotioncy: A movement beyond linguistic relativism.</a> International Journal of Society, Culture &amp; Language. 4 (2), 11-21 (2016).</li><li>Pishghadam, R., Abbasnejad, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotioncy:+a+potential+measure+of+readability.">Emotioncy: a potential measure of readability.</a> International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. 9 (1), 109-123 (2016).</li><li>Herz, R. S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Aromatherapy+facts+and+fictions:+A+scientific+analysis+of+olfactory+effects+on+mood,+physiology+and+behavior.">Aromatherapy facts and fictions: A scientific analysis of olfactory effects on mood, physiology and behavior.</a> International Journal of Neuroscience. 119, 263-290 (2009).</li></ol>

This study investigated the effect of emotion on the learning of syntactic rules in a foreign language, using an odor-based emotion induction approach. We tested the learning performance in a positive-emotion group and a negative-emotion group. Participants were first exposed to a pleasant odor or an unpleasant odor. Then they were instructed to learn the syntactic rules of a foreign language. Finally, a grammaticality judgment task was administered to assess their learning outcomes. The critical step within this protoco...

Language learning is the process of learning a second language through explicit instruction and education. Emotion has profound influence on various cognitive activities such as attention, perception, reasoning, problem solving and memorization. As language learning is a process involving attention, memorization and reasoning, emotion also has a major impact on the process and outcomes of language learning1. Most previous studies examined the relationships between learners&#39; emotional conditions and vocabulary memorization or text comprehension2. These studies intended to find out whether emotional conditions influenced the memorization or processing of emotional-congruent information. However, there have been only a few attempts to explore the effect of emotion on syntactic learning3,4,5. How emotion influences syntactic learning is still an issue that requires further exploration and clarification.
Previous studies of the relationships between emotions and cognitive activities related to languages have adopted a wide variety of methods to place learners in a positive or negative emotional state, including affective pictures, videos, music, autobiographic recall tasks or writing tasks6,7,8,9,10. For example, Liu et al.5 asked participants to listen to affective music and looked at affective pictures to induce positive and negative emotions and rated their emotional states before the language learning task was administered. In most prior studies, participants were required to evaluate affective films or pictures and rate their emotions before language tasks. However, these methods have several procedural artifacts that might affect the validity of the experimental results. First, these induction methods require the effortful processing of the affective materials11. Such processing might cause participants to guess the purposes of the experiment, which might result in the problem of demand characteristics12. In other words, once participants are aware of the experimental purposes, they might simply pretend to be in the desired emotional conditions to comply with the experimental demands13. Second, as the materials used in these tasks such as affective pictures, videos or writing tasks are rich in semantic information, they may interfere with the subsequent language learning tasks. For example, if a picture showing a girl with a smiley face is used to induce positive emotions, the words face, smile and girl will all be activated, and thus retrieved faster in the subsequent language learning process. If a video showing skinny children in tears is used to induce negative emotions, the words related to children, skinny, cry, eye and tears might all be pre-activated, facilitating the learning or processing of relevant information. As pictures and videos inevitably contain rich semantic information, the pre-activation of related concepts may result in biases in the outcomes of language learning. Third, the evaluation of emotional stimuli might unintentionally alter participants&#39; motivation or alertness11, which can cause some participants to perform unusually effortfully or actively. This may result in many confounding variables left uncontrolled such as arousal level, motivation or alertness, making the experimental results difficult to interpret.
In the present research, we adopted an odor-based method to induce emotions. Olfactory stimuli were used to place learners into positive or negative emotional conditions. Compared with other emotion induction approaches such as music or picture induction, the use of odors is a more implicit method to induce emotion14. Previous studies have found anatomical evidence showing that the brain structures involved in odor processing such as the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortices15,16 are also implicated in the processing of emotional information17,18,19,20. Negoias et al.21 have revealed that olfactory dysfunction was typically observed in patients with acute depression, which suggests a close connection between olfaction and emotional processing22,23. Apart from the anatomical and pathological evidence14,15,16,17,18,19,20, there is also plenty of behavioral evidence which demonstrated that odors in the environments could shape individuals&#39; affective states in an unconscious way24. Odors serve as effective affective carriers that modulate individuals&#39; internal affective conditions11. Previous studies of emotion induction showed that people exposed to pleasant odors are more prone to have positive emotions, while those exposed to unpleasant odors are more likely to be in a negative emotional condition25,26. Odors are regarded as the ideal stimuli to manipulate the emotional state of participants largely because they are highly effective in emotion induction and they require little explicit cognitive involvement14. Therefore, odor-based induction methods enable us to investigate the effect of emotion on language learning without having to worry about the potential confounding factors such as motivation and alertness level.
So far, odor-based induction methods have rarely been used to examine the effect of emotion on language learning. Wang et al.11 investigated the effect of odor-induced emotion on sentence comprehension using event related potentials. However, this study focused on the processing of participants&#39; native language, rather than foreign language learning. Little research has been done to explore how odor-induced emotion may influence the learning of a foreign language. In this study, we intended to adopt an odor-based induction method to examine how learners in different affective states learn a foreign language differently. Compared with other induction methods, the odor-based induction method has the following three advantages. First, learners are less aware of the relationship between odor and language learning, so they are less likely to guess the purpose of the experiment. Second, as odors do not require effortful processing, participants could process them in a passive way, and thus their motivation and alertness levels are kept under control. Finally, the use of olfactory stimuli may reduce the perceptual artifacts resulting from the use of affective pictures or videos. As the olfactory channels activated by odors have no direct association with the processing of visual information, such sensory artifacts can be easily avoided, which can contribute to a more objective assessment of experimental outcomes.
Given the advantages discussed above, the odor-based induction approach might be a more effective method that enables us to identify the effect of emotion on language learning. In this study, we empirically tested the effectiveness of an odor-based induction method in the investigation into the effect of emotion on foreign language learning. The findings can also inform us of how learners in different affective states learn foreign languages differently.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Apple flavor</td>
			<td>Givaudan</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to induce positive emotion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Computers</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to present stimuli and record subjects&#39; responses.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>E-prime</td>
			<td>PST</td>
			<td>2.0.8.22</td>
			<td>Stimulus presentation software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Indole</td>
			<td>Taida</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to induce negative emotion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to assess subjects&#39; affective states. From Lang (1980).</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

investigating the effects of emotion on language learning using an odor-based induction method

Emotion has important influence on language learning. However, the effect of emotion on syntactic learning has been relatively under-researched. Most previous studies used affective pictures, music or videos to induce positive or negative emotions before having participants perform the language learning tasks. The use of these materials is an explicit induction method that might unintentionally alter participants&#39; motivation or result in the problem of demand characteristics. To avoid such procedural artifacts, we adopted an odor-based induction approach to examining the influence of positive and negative emotions on language learning. We found that after the odor-based induction, participants in the positive-emotion group were significantly happier and those in the negative-emotion group were significantly sadder. Compared with participants in the positive emotion condition, those in the negative emotion condition performed more accurately in the assessment task, although no significant difference was found in reaction times. These findings suggest that the protocol is effective in identifying the effect of emotion on language learning. The implications of this experimental paradigm are discussed.

The results of emotion ratings are summarized in Figure 1. Repeated-measures ANOVA was performed with valence ratings as the dependent variable, and group (positive, negative) and time (before induction, immediately after induction, after learning) as the independent variables. The results showed a significant effect of group, F (1, 58) = 24.71, p &#60; 0.05, and a significant interaction effect between group and time, F (1, 58) = 2...

Here, we present a protocol to measure the effects of emotional conditions on language learning, using an odor-based induction method which places participants in positive or negative emotional states by exposing them to a pleasant or unpleasant odor, and then asks them to perform a language learning task.

Investigating the Effects of Emotion on Language Learning Using an Odor-Based Induction Method

Emotion has important influence on language learning. However, the effect of emotion on syntactic learning has been relatively under-researched. Most ...