title: Blinded by taboo words in L1 but not L2.
abstract: The present study compares the emotionality of English taboo words in native English speakers and native Chinese speakers who learned English as a second language. Neutral and taboo/sexual words were included in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task as to-be-ignored distracters in a short- and long-lag condition. Compared with neutral distracters, taboo/sexual distracters impaired the performance in the short-lag condition only. Of critical note, however, is that the performance of Chinese speakers was less impaired by taboo/sexual distracters. This supports the view that a first language is more emotional than a second language, even when words are processed quickly and automatically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Katie L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Colbeck
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Bowers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology; D054518:Attentional Blink; D001332:Automatism / Q000523:psychology; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D004644:Emotions; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013609:Taboo; D055815:Young Adult