Order Effects of Mood Induction on Processing Emotionally Neutral Words in a Second Language

While considerable research has examined how mood affects emotional information processing, relatively little attention has been given to its impact on emotionally neutral information. Moreover, studies rarely consider the order of mood induction (e.g., transitioning from positive to negative or vice versa) when investigating mood effects. This gap is particularly relevant in second language (L2) processing, where emotional states can influence cognitive and linguistic performance. The present study investigates how positive and negative moods and the order of mood induction, affect the processing of emotionally neutral lexical items among L2 learners of English. Participants (N = 66) including a Negative-to-Positive Mood Group and a Positive-to-Negative Mood Group joined this study. After watching mood-inducing video-clips, participants completed a lexical decision task, in which they decided whether a word displayed on the screen was a real English word or not. Results showed that both groups of participants were more accurate and faster at identifying words compared to non-words. Importantly, participants responded faster in a positive mood than in a negative mood, but this effect was observed only when positive mood was inducted after negative mood, but not vice versa. These findings suggest that positive mood may facilitate the processing speed of emotionally neutral information in an L2, but this effect was modulated by the sequence of mood induction. Our results highlight the importance of mood changes on L2 processing.