Visual features surrounding text can shape learners’ attentional allocation and online processing, yet their role in second language (L2) incidental vocabulary learning remains underexplored. Drawing on cognitive load and multimedia learning perspectives, external visual cues may influence learners’ allocation of limited cognitive resources during reading, while extraneous visual information imposes additional demands, under cognitively demanding L2 input. The present study examined whether frame color influenced online and offline measures of incidental vocabulary learning, and whether these effects differed by heritage background. The participants (26 heritage and 26 non-heritage L2 learners) read three texts containing 18 novel words presented with no-color, yellow, or blue frames. The data were analyzed using mixed-effects models, with proficiency and area of interest (AOI) length included as covariates. The results showed no significant effects of frame color or heritage background on offline outcomes. However, frame color selectively influenced online eye-movement behavior, primarily in fixation counts and rereading measures. Heritage background was also significant, with non-heritage learners showing longer go-past times. The interaction between frame color and heritage background in second-pass fixation counts was not statistically significant, while follow-up comparisons revealed a significant color difference among non-heritage learners only. These findings suggest that peripheral visual cues primarily influence later attentional rereading rather than early lexical processing, while online changes do not necessarily translate into vocabulary learning gains.

Background/Objectives: Cross-modal emotional priming effects of music on language have been widely demonstrated, but how musical emotion interacts with different types of conceptual representation remains unclear. This study examined whether emotional musical contexts exert differential influences on the processing of concrete and abstract words, whose processing is thought to depend to different degrees on sensorimotor and affective experience. Methods: Two ERP experiments were conducted using a long stimulus-onset asynchrony priming paradigm with two independent groups of participants. In Experiment 1, 24 female participants performed valence judgments on concrete words following positive or negative musical primes. In Experiment 2, 24 female participants completed the same task with abstract words. ERP components associated with early perceptual or attentional processing, semantic processing, and later evaluative or integrative processing were analyzed. Results: Musical emotion modulated the processing of both concrete and abstract words, but the temporal patterns differed. For concrete words, music–word valence-congruency effects were mainly observed following negative music primes, with negative words eliciting larger P2 and late positive component amplitudes than positive words. Musical context also modulated the N400 amplitudes, suggesting effects across multiple processing stages. For abstract words, no reliable interaction was observed in the P2 or N400 time windows. Instead, a late-stage valence effect emerged mainly following positive music primes, with negative words eliciting larger late positive component amplitudes than positive words. Conclusions: These findings suggest that musical emotion interacts with concrete and abstract word processing through distinct temporal patterns. The results offer preliminary support for the contextual compensation hypothesis, suggesting that concrete words may be more sensitive to external musical contexts during emotional processing, whereas abstract words appear to rely more on later-stage emotional integration. These findings therefore highlight context-dependent effects of musical emotion and music–word valence congruency on concrete and abstract word processing.

Grounded in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and Cognitive Load Theory, this study examined how cue-based instructional support relates to L2 Chinese vocabulary processing and immediate learning outcomes. Forty intermediate-to-advanced learners studied 24 disyllabic pseudowords under four within-subject conditions: no cueing, verbal cueing (linguistic–semantic support via definitions and collocations), physical cueing (typographical enhancement via bolded targets and underlined contextual words), and full cueing. Eye movements, immediate post-tests, and questionnaires were analyzed. The results revealed selective, measure-dependent effects rather than uniform facilitation. In the Orthographic Choice Task, no cueing outperformed full cueing. In the Semantic Priming Decision Task, verbal cueing yielded a higher accuracy than physical cueing, indicating that linguistic–semantic support benefited initial meaning-related processing more than typographical enhancement. No differences emerged in the Sentence Acceptability Judgment Task. Eye-tracking showed shorter first fixations under physical than verbal cueing, suggesting the limited facilitation of early visual orienting. Full cueing showed no consistent advantage over verbal cueing but elicited larger pupil sizes and longer total fixation durations on targets, indicating additional coordination demands. Learners most often preferred full-cueing materials, yet rated verbal cueing as most helpful. An effective cue-based design should align the cue format and content with the target learning dimension while avoiding unnecessary processing demands. The findings reflect immediate learning under controlled conditions rather than long-term acquisition.