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An Thi-Khanh Nguyen, University of Birmingham, United KingdomAbstract
Colour is a powerful communication tool that influences emotions and reactions. While previous studies suggest that colour impacts language processing, few have focused on Vietnamese-English bilinguals. Moreover, the unique tonal structure of Vietnamese, its culturally specific colour associations, and the cognitive differences in bilingual processing hinder generalising findings from other languages to Vietnamese-English bilinguals. This study contributes to the literature on embodied cognition and bilingual language processing by investigating whether the colour (black or white) of a word affects the speed with which Vietnamese-English speakers identify it as positive or negative and if the effect is stronger in their first language (L1) compared to their second language (L2). The theory of embodied cognition was used to support the hypothesised relationship between word meaning and colour. In the study, 16 participants saw words in a congruent colour (e.g., “angel” in white) or an incongruent colour (e.g., “angel” in black), against a grey – an unemotional colour background, presented along with the category labels “negative” and “positive”. They were asked to quickly and accurately determine whether the word had a negative or positive meaning. The results indicated a statistically significant, though small, effect of word colour on response speed, with 14 out of 16 participants responding faster to words in a congruent colour. Additionally, participants were quicker to recognise words in L1 compared to L2, suggesting a stronger effect of colour in L1. These findings contribute to theories of embodied cognition and bilingual language processing, offering practical insights for marketing and cross-linguistic.
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Conference: ACP2025Stream: Linguistics, Language & Psychology/Behavioral Science
This paper is part of the ACP2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Nguyen A. (2025) Does the Colour of a Word Affect the Speed With Which People Identify It As “Positive” or “Negative”? ISSN: 2187-4743 – The Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 85-96) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2187-4743.2025.7
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2187-4743.2025.7
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