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16:30 - 18:00
Parallel sessions 6
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16:30 - 18:00
Room: HSZ - 7E02
Chair/s:
Tanja C Roembke, Matilde Ellen Simonetti
Bilinguals require language control to regulate the activation of their known languages. Language switching paradigms are commonly used to investigate the processes underlying bilingual language control. Several approaches fall under the umbrella term “language switching,” whose defining feature is the alternation between languages, thereby requiring bilinguals to select one language over another on each trial. In this symposium, five talks present innovative research using language switching to explore language control processes in both comprehension (Talks 1-2) and production (Talks 3-4). Across studies, different paradigms (e.g., picture naming, voluntary switching, sequential switching) and methodologies, from behavioral measures to virtual reality, are employed. The focus extends beyond single-word processing to include also sentence-level processing. In Talk 1, Aaron Vandendaele examines proactive control mechanisms during language switching using a semantic classification task involving written word categorization. Luigi Falanga (Talk 2) investigates the flexibility of control and the role of interference in language-switching comprehension tasks. His study explores how recent and ongoing cross-language interference influences comprehension in complex listening contexts. In Talk 3, Andrea Philipp discusses how between-language conflict at the lemma-level shapes language control during switching. She examines the impact of cross-language interference on lexical selection and how conflict resolution processes facilitate language switching. Finally, in Talk 4, Maria Sanchez investigates sentence production in interactions with virtual interlocutors. Her study uses both voluntary and cued language-switching paradigms to examine how speakers adapt their language choice based on the interlocutor’s accent and linguistic background. Together, these talks showcase new directions in the study of bilingual language control, illustrating how innovative paradigms and technologies are reshaping our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying language switching.
Submission 678
Between-Language Conflict in Language Switching
SymposiumTalk-03
Presented by: Andrea M. Philipp
Andrea M. Philipp, Johannes Krings, Charlotte Brandes, Iring Koch
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
When bilinguals switch between their languages in language production, both languages are assumed to be activated in parallel. Thus, whenever bilinguals have to select a word in one specific language, this selection occurs in a situation of between-language interference. To allow selection nevertheless, between-language interference is presumably resolved by activating the target language and/or inhibiting the nontarget language (i.e., language control). In a series of language-switching experiments, we explored the role of between-language interference and language control on language switching. Between-language interference was manipulated by using a variable vs. constant item-to language mapping. In a variable mapping, a picture was named in both languages throughout the experiment so that both languages can be assumed to be activated in parallel, leading to a high between-language interference. In contrast, in a constant item-to-language mapping a picture was named in one language only and thus (after some learning) should activate this language to a higher degree than the other language, resulting in a smaller between-language interference. Our results provide evidence that a constant item-to-language mapping (i.e., smaller between-language interference) reduced language-switch costs - which is the performance difference between language-switch and language repetition trials. Importantly, the switch-cost reduction did not only affect the current trial but also occurred in the subsequent trial, indicating aftereffects in terms of persisting language activation and/or inhibition. Taken together, our experiments demonstrate a critical role of between-language interference in language switching and suggest that language-switch cost can (to a large degree) be attributed to the resolution of between-language interference.