Eye-Tracking Emotional and Spiritual Responses in Bilinguals: A Comparative Study of Georgian and Arabic Speakers
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This study examined how bilingual speakers of Georgian-English and Arabic-English process emotional and spiritual language across their first (L1) and second (L2) languages using eye-tracking methodology. Participants viewed a series of emotionally neutral, negative, and spiritually themed words and sentences presented in both L1 and L2. Eye-tracking measures, including fixation duration, time to first fixation (TTFF), revisit counts, and total gaze time, were analyzed to assess cognitive and emotional engagement with the stimuli. Data from 35 participants (17 Georgian-English and 18 Arabic-English bilinguals) revealed that participants generally exhibited longer fixation durations and greater total gaze time when reading in English (L2), indicating increased cognitive load. However, spiritually themed content elicited longer fixations and higher gaze time in L1, suggesting deeper emotional and cultural resonance. TTFF was faster in L2 for both groups, though Arabic participants showed slower TTFF for spiritual content in Arabic, implying reflective processing. These findings support theories of emotional grounding in L1 and offer implications for multilingual education, therapy, and cross-cultural communication. Cultural and design limitations are acknowledged, with recommendations for incorporating religiosity measures and standardized stimuli in future research.
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