On the Reliability of Switching Costs Across Time and Domains

Abstract

Bilingual speakers are suggested to use control processes to avoid linguistic interference from the unintended language. It is debated whether these bilingual language control (BLC) processes are an instantiation of the more domain-general executive control (EC) processes. Previous studies inconsistently report correlations between measures of linguistic and non-linguistic control in bilinguals. In the present study, we investigate the extent to which there is cross-talk between these two domains of control for two switch costs, namely the n-1 shift cost and the n-2 repetition cost. Also, we address an important problem, namely the reliability of the measures used to investigate cross-talk. If the reliability of a measure is low, then these measures are ill-suited to test cross-talk between domains through correlations. We asked participants to perform both a linguistic- and non-linguistic switching task at two sessions about a week apart. The results show a dissociation between the two types of switch costs. Regarding test–retest reliability, we found a stronger reliability for the n-1 shift cost compared to the n-2 repetition cost within both domains as measured by correlations across sessions. This suggests the n-1 shift cost is more suitable to explore cross-talk of BLC and EC. Next, we do find cross-talk for the n-1 shift cost as demonstrated by a significant cross-domain correlation. This suggests that there are at least some shared processes in the linguistic and non-linguistic task.

No Bilingual Benefits Despite Relations Between Language Switching and Task Switching

“…We can therefore neither confirm nor refute the idea that naming pictures in the non-dominant language (as opposed to the dominant language) draws on domain-general cognitive control mechanisms. Similar to previous research, both on bilingual children ( Gross and Kaushanskaya, 2016 ) and adults ( Calabria et al, 2011 , 2015 ; Branzi et al, 2016 ), our study did not find direct relationships between the processing costs (switching/mixing costs) caused by language switching and nonverbal task-switching, although there are also studies that report relationships between language switching and task switching with regard to these measures ( Declerck et al, 2017 ; Timmer et al, 2018 ).…”

Bilingual switching between languages and listeners: Insights from immersive virtual reality

“…Neuroimaging work indicates that the language control network, which subserves control operations when bilinguals produce (Abutalebi & Green, 2008Luk, Green, Abutalebi, & Grady, 2012) and comprehend language (Peeters, Vanlangendonck, Rueschemeyer, & Dijkstra, 2019), overlaps with the network implicated in executive control more generally (e.g., Abutalebi et al, 2011;Blanco-Elorrieta & Pylkkänen, 2016, 2017Branzi, Della Rosa, Canini, Costa, & Abutalebi, 2016;De Baene, Duyck, Brass, & Carreiras, 2015;De Bruin et al, 2014;Coderre, Smith, Van Heuven, & Horwitz, 2016;Garbin et al, 2010;Grant, Fang, & Li, 2015;Green & Abutalebi, 2013). The exact degree of overlap, however, is under debate and views differ in whether they posit only partial overlap (e.g., Calabria, Baus, & Costa, 2019;Magezi, Khateb, Mouthon, Spierer, & Annoni, 2012;Timmer, Calabria, Branzi, Baus, & Costa, 2018;Weissberger, Wierenga, Bondi, & Gollan, 2012) or significant overlap between highly similar brain circuits (e.g., Abutalebi & Green, 2016;De Baene et al, 2015;Pliatsikas & Luk, 2016).…”

“…Executive control and language control are broad notions that involve a variety of subcomponents, including goal maintenance, conflict monitoring, interference suppression, cue detection, response inhibition, and task (dis)engagement (Calabria, Costa, Green, & Abutalebi, 2018;Green & Abutalebi, 2013). It has traditionally been difficult to reliably compare non-linguistic executive control processes to linguistic control processes in the same bilingual population in tasks that are matched in all respects except for the involvement of language (Calabria et al, 2018;De Baene et al, 2015;Linck, Schwieter, & Sunderman, 2012;Soveri, Rodriguez-Fornells, & Laine, 2011;Timmer et al, 2018). The present study tackles this issue from a novel angle, by comparing instances of bilingual language production that differ in the number of task set reconfigurations necessary.…”

On the flexibility of bilingual language control: The effect of language context

“…The SWITCH COST refers to slower response latencies for switch trials, where a picture is named in the opposite language from that used in the previous trial, compared to trials in which the same language is used -nonswitch trials (e.g., Calabria, Hernández, Branzi & Costa, 2011;Costa, Santesteban & Ivanova, 2006;Jackson, Swainson, Cunnington & Jackson, 2001;Meuter & Allport, 1999;Philipp, Gade & Koch, 2007;Schwieter & Sunderman, 2008;Timmer, Calabria, Branzi, Baus & Costa, 2018;Verhoef, Roelofs & Chwilla, 2009). Interestingly, the magnitude of the switch cost for each language (L1 vs. L2) seems to depend on the speaker's proficiency level.…”