Language control in bilingual language comprehension: evidence from the maze task.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Bilingualism Research

Background:

• Empirical evidence on switch costs primarily stems from bilingual production, often attributed to inhibitory control.
• The existence of similar top-down control processes in language switching during comprehension remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate non-lexical switch costs in reading code-switched sentences.
• To examine the relationship between switch costs, language dominance, and cross-script bilingual readers.
• To differentiate between top-down inhibitory effects and input-driven lexical effects.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a maze task to analyze reading behavior in cross-script bilinguals.
• Separated inhibitory control from lexical activation during language switching.
• Measured switch costs in both L1-L2 and L2-L1 directions.

Main Results:

• Observed significant switch costs in both L1-L2 and L2-L1 reading directions.
• Identified two distinct mechanisms underlying switch costs: lexical activation and inhibitory control.
• Found that language dominance modulated lexical effects, but not inhibitory control effects.

Conclusions:

• Language control mechanisms are active during bilingual reading comprehension, distinct from production.
• Findings support the Inhibitory Control model for language switching in comprehension.
• The BIA/BIA+ model requires integration of top-down control to account for comprehension switch costs.