Speaker: Francesca M.M. Citron @faladora
Affiliation: Lancaster University
Title: Effects of Culture on Immersion During Narrative Reading
Abstract (long version below): This study investigated whether culture affects immersion during narrative reading, i.e., attention, transportation, and emotional engagement, independent of the language of readers (native or second language) to test whether cultural relevance of the content read affects the reading experience. This study is novel in this approach in that previous research has always compared speed of processing of emotional distance in the native vs. the second language, therefore confounding potential effects of culture with language proficiency.
Long abstract
The literature on multilinguals, individuals who speak more than one language fluently in their daily life, shows that they experience more emotional distance from their second or non-dominant language (e.g., Pavlenko, 2012), showing reduced physiological arousing responses to reprimands or swear words when perceived in their L2 (Caldwell-Harris, 2015). However, psycholinguistic research show that multilinguals indeed process the emotive content of words in L2, with similar behavioural and electrophysiological responses to native speakers, although these may show reduced magnitude or delayed onset (Conrad et al., 2011; Ponari et al., 2015). When it comes to fiction reading, L2 speakers show activation of the emotion neural network in addition to the extended-language network; however, native (L1) speakers show a more differentiated emotional neural response (Hsu et al., 2015). Because language and culture are tightly intertwined, it is difficult to tease apart whether differences in language processing and emotional distance are due to the fact that the L2 is less familiar and more cognitively demanding, or to the fact that the concepts or topics of conversation are less culturally-relevant for L2 speakers.
This study sought to investigate whether culture affects immersion, i.e., attention, transportation, and emotional engagement, during narrative reading by keeping the language constant (L1), but changing the content of short texts so that they are related to Mainland Chinese culture or Hong Kong culture. In addition, texts describing both modern and traditional cultural events were used. The short texts were created by adapting and shortening articles and readings describing cultural events and practices. Two groups of participants, who identified with Mainland Chinese culture (N = 21) vs. Hong Kong culture (N = 21) were asked to complete an online survey in which 12 short stories were presented, each followed by an adapted version of the Story World Absorption Scale (SWAS; Kuijpers et al., 2014), a questionnaire developed to measure immersion during reading. Participants were asked about their native language and culture and assigned to the Mandarin or Cantonese version of the questionnaire. The stories were identical in the two languages/writing systems: half of them were related to Mainland Chinese culture, half traditional and half modern; the other half was related to Hong Kong culture, again half traditional, half modern.
Preliminary results show that Hong Kong participants were significantly more immersed in Hong Kong cultural stories than in Mainland Chinese cultural stories. However, Mainland Chinese participants only showed a trend toward higher immersion in Mainland Chinese cultural stories than Hong Kong stories; the difference was not significant. Further analyses showed that the timeframe, i.e., traditional vs. modern cultural stories, significantly affected Hong Kong readers in that they showed a larger difference in immersion between Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese modern stories than between the traditional stories. This may be due to the fact that, while the two cultures have common historical origins, a clear cultural distinction is much more evident in their modern history.
This is one of the first studies we are aware of which addressed immersion and, in a way, affective engagement in response to different cultures, while keeping the language of communication constant. In this way, we could demonstrate that affective distance from words, texts, stories can be due to cultural identity. Future research should systematically investigate cultural relevance and affective responses in both L1 and L2.
References
Caldwell-Harris, C. (2015). Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: Implications for everyday life. Psychological Science, 24, 214-219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414566268
Conrad, M., Recio, G., & Jacobs, A. M. (2011). The time course of emotion effects in first and second language processing: a cross cultural ERP study with German–Spanish bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 351. Frontiers | The Time Course of Emotion Effects in First and Second Language Processing: A Cross Cultural ERP Study with German–Spanish Bilinguals
Hsu, C.-T., Jacobs, A. M., & Conrad, M. (2015). Can Harry Potter still put a spell on us in a second language? An fMRI study on reading emotion-laden literature in late bilinguals. Cortex, 63, 282-295. Redirecting
Kuijpers, M. M., Hakemulder, F., Tan, E. S., & Doicaru, M. M. (2014). Exploring absorbing reading experiences. Developing and validating a self-report scale to measure story world absorption. Scientific Study of Literature, 4, 89-122. Exploring absorbing reading experiences: Developing and validating a self-report scale to measure story world absorption | John Benjamins
Pavlenko, A. (2012). Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition? International Journal of Psychology, 47, 405-428. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2012.743665
Ponari, M., Cuadrado, S. R., Vinson, D. P., Fox, N. A., Costa, A., & Vigliocco, G. (2015). Processing advantage for emotional words in bilingual speakers. Emotion, 15, 644-652. APA PsycNet