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

Summary

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.

Abstract

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' 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.

Introduction

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' emotional conditions and vocabulary memorization or text comprehension². These studies intended to find out whether emotional conditions influenc....

Protocol

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

1. 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.......

Discussion

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.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Apple flavor	Givaudan	N/A	Used to induce positive emotion
Computers	N/A	N/A	Used to present stimuli and record subjects' responses.
E-prime	PST	2.0.8.22	Stimulus presentation software
Indole	Taida	N/A	Used to induce negative emotion
Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)	N/A	N/A	Used to assess subjects' affective states. From Lang (1980).