1. Introduction

This article introduces the importance of emotional words in psycholinguistic research and explores the potential impact of mood and emotional word types on emotional word processing. The effect of mood consistency and its role in emotional word processing were discussed, while pointing out the inconsistency of research results. Emotional words are divided into emotional label words and emotional load words, and the differences in processing between the two are emphasized. In addition, the chapter also mentions the expansion of emotional word processing research in the second language field, and proposes the purpose of this study, which is to examine the influence of mood and vocabulary types on the processing of emotional words in Chinese English learners' second language.

2. Literature review

Deeply explored the influence of mood and vocabulary types on emotional word processing. Early research found that mood accelerates the recognition of emotional words that are consistent with mood valence, and the memory encoding of positive words is more effective in a positive mood. However, these studies have methodological limitations, such as lax control over mood evoked stimuli and insufficient control over language and emotional variables of stimulus words. Subsequent research, through more rigorous experimental design, discovered the interaction between vocabulary valence and mood, as well as the existence of mood consistency effect in discourse context. The research on the mood effect of emotional word processing has begun to focus on second language, and it has been found that mood differentiation regulates the early vocabulary processing process in both mother tongue and second language, and the mood effect of vocabulary processing is regulated by individual gender.

3. Research methods

Detailed description of the four main aspects of the research methodology. Firstly, based on calculations using G * Power software, a sample size of at least 58 participants was determined, and 66 female English learners aged between 19 and 28 were recruited and randomly assigned to the negative and positive mood groups. All participants started learning English around the age of 9, had a moderate level of second language proficiency, and had a good emotional state during the data collection period. Secondly, the experimental design adopted a mixed design of 2 (mood: positive, negative) × 2 (lexical valence: positive, negative) × 2 (lexical type: emotional label words, emotional load words), including mood evoked stimuli and language stimuli. The mood evoked stimuli consist of 6 emotional animation segments, and the language stimuli consist of 120 English words, divided into four categories, strictly controlling for variables that may affect emotional word processing. Thirdly, the experimental process was developed using E-prime 2.0 software, including fixation points, stimulus word presentation, key response and blank screen, as well as mood valence evaluation. The subjects practiced before the formal experiment. Finally, t-tests and linear mixed effects models were used to analyze the effectiveness of mood induction and behavioral data for emotion classification tasks, including reaction time, taking into account both main and interaction effects.

4. Results

The effectiveness of mood induction was verified through experimental data, and it was found that positive and negative animation segments significantly improved and decreased the mood scores of the subjects, respectively. In the task of emotional valence classification, the reaction time of emotional label words is generally shorter than that of emotional load words, and the reaction time of negative words is shorter in negative moods. The interaction effect between mood and vocabulary valence is significant, but the interaction effect between mood, vocabulary type, and the three is not significant.

5. Discussion

Deeply explored the influence of mood and vocabulary types on the processing of second language emotional words. Research has found that in negative moods, the processing of negative emotion words has advantages, which supports the mood consistency effect. This effect may be similar to the emotion priming effect, explained by Bower's associative network model and the embodied view of emotion and language processing. However, the consistency effect of mood only occurs in negative moods and may be related to the negative bias in emotional information processing. This bias may be related to evolutionary adaptation, as rapid detection and avoidance of negative stimuli are crucial for survival. The reaction correlation hypothesis also explains the differences in processing time between negative and positive words in different tasks.

6. Conclusion

This study explores for the first time the influence of mood and vocabulary type on the processing of second language emotional words by Chinese English learners. The results showed that the consistency between mood valence and lexical valence promoted emotional word processing, supporting the mood consistency effect. The processing of second language emotional label words has advantages and supports the embodiment theory. Research proposes methodological recommendations, emphasizing the importance of considering vocabulary types and mood in the processing of second language emotional words. In terms of educational practice, it is recommended to use scenario simulation and embodied experience to enhance the embodiment of emotional load words, as well as create a mood context to improve teaching effectiveness. At the same time, the expansion space of research was pointed out, including further exploration of bilingual contexts, investigation of influencing factors, application of virtual reality technology, objective measurement of mood changes, and application of neuroscience research methods.