Code-Switching patterns differentially shape cognitive control: Testing the predictions of the adaptive control hypothesis

Abstract

Bilinguals engage in qualitatively different code-switching patterns (alternation, insertion, and congruent lexicalization) to different degrees, according to their engagement in different types of interactional contexts (single-language context, dual-language context, and dense code-switching context). Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis, we examined whether bilinguals’ code-switching patterns would differentially shape multiple aspects of cognitive control (interference control, salient cue detection, and opportunistic planning). We found that a dense code-switching context, which predominantly involves insertion and congruent lexicalization, was positively associated with verbal opportunistic planning but negatively associated with interference control and salient cue detection. In contrast, a dual-language context, which predominantly involves alternation, was not associated with interference control or salient cue detection, but with significantly reduced response times for opportunistic planning. Our findings partially corroborate the theoretical predictions of the adaptive control hypothesis. Altogether, our study illustrates the importance of bilinguals’ disparate code-switching practices in shaping cognitive control outcomes.

Modulating bilingual language production and cognitive control: how bilingual language experience matters

“…In the Control Process Model (CPM), Green and Li (2014) emphasised the variations of cognitive control demands in processing different code-switching patterns. That is, the degree of activation of lexical items and the grammatical frameworks across two languages leads to the deployment of different cognitive control strategies in producing various code-switching patterns (Ng & Yang, 2021;Treffers-Daller, 2009). For example, bilinguals use the language that comes most readily to them to formulate their intrasentential switching utterance in dense code-switching contexts.…”

The Complexity in Bilingual Code-Switching Research: A Systematic Review

“…Since their laboratory was a traditionally English-dominant context, they engaged their participants in conversation, asking them to share their thoughts about the story and their favorite childhood story with the experimenters speaking exclusively in Mandarin. Ng and Yang (2021) constructed a bilingual opportunistic verbal planning task. In this task, participants were presented with sentences that were missing a word and asked to complete the sentences with the words that best fit the context.…”

The role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in bilingual language switching and non-linguistic task-switching: Evidence from multi-voxel pattern analysis

“…(Dash et al, 2022;DeLuca et al, 2019;Sulpizio et al, 2020). More recent studies also make specific hypotheses about the types of cognitive control that may be connected to bilingual experiences (Gosselin & Sabourin, 2023;Han et al, 2023;Kałamała et al, 2020;Ng & Yang, 2022). This nuanced approach to understanding the relationship between bilingual experience and cognitive control is based on updated neurocognitive models, including the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013).…”