Resumen de Emotional intelligence, working memory, and emotional vocabulary in L1 and L2: interactions and dissociations
Cognition and emotion are interrelated concepts. However, very little is known about the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and emotional intelligence (EI) and their effect on the retrieval and generation of emotional vocabulary. This study aimed to explore correlation patterns between WMC and four factors of trait EI (well-being, self-control, emotionality, sociability). It also sought to examine whether WMC and trait EI are significant determinants of the number and perceived pleasantness of emotion words freely retrieved and produced in a non-emotionally charged context and the extent to which language of retrieval had an effect on this association. The results showed negative correlations between WMC and two factors of trait EI (well-being and emotionality). Trait EI was the sole predictor variable of the perceived pleasantness of the words retrieved, whereas trait EI, language of retrieval, and gender explained a statistically significant amount of the variance in the number of emotion words generated. Qualitative analysis of the emotional vocabulary revealed a slight predominance of positive words and common patterns in the most highly activated words in both first and second languages.
