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Language-switch costs from comprehension to production might just be task-switch costs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2021

Chuchu Li Open the ORCID record for Chuchu Li [Opens in a new window]  and
Tamar H. Gollan
Chuchu Li*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, USA
Tamar H. Gollan
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Chuchu LiDepartment of PsychiatryUniversity of California, San Diego9500 Gilman DriveLa Jolla, CA 92093-0948, USAchl441@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

Spanish–English bilinguals switched between naming pictures in one language and either reading-aloud or semantically classifying written words in both languages. When switching between reading-aloud and picture-naming, bilinguals exhibited no language switch costs in picture-naming even though they produced overt language switches in speech. However, when switching between semantic classification and picture-naming, bilinguals, especially unbalanced bilinguals, exhibited switch costs in the dominant language and switch facilitation in the nondominant language even though they never switched languages overtly. These results reveal language switching across comprehension and production can be cost-free when the intention remains the same. Assuming switch costs at least partially reflect inhibition of the nontarget language, this implies such language control mechanisms are recruited only under demanding task conditions, especially for unbalanced bilinguals. These results provide striking demonstration of adaptive control mechanisms and call into question previous claims that language switch costs necessarily transfer from comprehension to production.

Keywords

language switching from comprehension to productionadaptive controlinhibitionunivalent stimuli
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , May 2022 , pp. 459 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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