Reasoning in Different Languages: Exploring Emotional Resonance and Deliberative Processing in Foreign Language Effect

Abstract

The Foreign Language Effect (FLE) describes differences in decision-making when using a foreign language compared to native tongue. Particularly, a foreign language enhances logical consistency and reduces emotional biases. Despite its significance, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Two hypotheses have been proposed: the deducted emotion hypothesis suggests that using a foreign language reduces emotional biases; the increased deliberation account promotes more systematic thinking and attributes FLE to the increased cognitive loads, particularly the strain on working memory. These mechanisms may function independently or interactively. This study disentangles their relative contributions by analyzing syllogistic reasoning performance in English monolinguals and Chinese-English bilinguals. Reasoning tasks varied in emotional context (neutral vs. emotional) and logical forms, including Modus Ponens (MP), Denial of Antecedent (DA), Affirmation of Consequent (AC), and Modus Tollens (MT). Typically, MP and MT require higher cognitive loads than DA and AC. With bilinguals showing higher accuracy than monolinguals on DA and AC, a trend for an interaction of reasoning form was observed, as compared to MP and MT, lending support for the increased deliberation account. There was also a trend for a larger difference between emotional and neutral items in English compared to Chinese for items with lower cognitive loads, lending support for the reduced emotion account. However, limited statistical power prevented the detection of significant interactions, and reasoning form did not exhibit a consistent impact on overall performance. These findings suggest that both emotional and cognitive factors contribute to FLE, but further research with larger samples is needed.