On the Connection Between Language Control and Executive Control-An ERP Study.

Mathieu Declerck,Katherine J Midgley,Ardi Roelofs,Phillip J Holcomb,Karen Emmorey,Gabriela Meade

doi:10.1162/nol_a_00032

Abstract

Models vary in the extent to which language control processes are domain general. Those that posit that language control is at least partially domain general insist on an overlap between language control and executive control at the goal level. To further probe whether or not language control is domain general, we conducted the first event-related potential (ERP) study that directly compares language-switch costs, as an index of language control, and task-switch costs, as an index of executive control. The language switching and task switching methodologies were identical, except that the former required switching between languages (English or Spanish) whereas the latter required switching between tasks (color naming or category naming). This design allowed us to directly compare control processes at the goal level (cue-locked ERPs) and at the task performance level (picture-locked ERPs). We found no significant differences in the switch-related cue-locked and picture-locked ERP patterns across the language and task switching paradigms. These results support models of domain-general language control.

Highlights

A contested claim in the bilingual literature is that language control, which involves reducing cross-language interference and increasing the chances of selecting a word from the target language, is part of a more general executive control process (e.g., de Bruin et al, 2014; Green, 1998; Weissberger et al, 2015; see Calabria et al, 2015; Declerck et al, 2015; Jylkkä et al, 2018)
We found no significant differences in the switch-related cue-locked and picture-locked event-related potential (ERP) patterns across the language and task switching paradigms
We investigated the claim that language control is domain general by using event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether or not there is overlap between language control and executive control during goal activation and selection, and/or during later stimulus processing

Summary

Introduction

A contested claim in the bilingual literature is that language control, which involves reducing cross-language interference and increasing the chances of selecting a word from the target language, is part of a more general executive control process (e.g., de Bruin et al, 2014; Green, 1998; Weissberger et al, 2015; see Calabria et al, 2015; Declerck et al, 2015; Jylkkä et al, 2018). The absence of conclusive evidence for domain-general language control could be due to prior research typically not focusing on the processing level at which language control and executive control are assumed to overlap, namely the goal level (e.g., Green, 1998; Roelofs, 2003; Thomas & Allport, 2000). We investigated the claim that language control is domain general by using event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether or not there is overlap between language control and executive control during goal activation and selection, and/or during later stimulus processing. The literature on whether or not language control is domain general is quite divided.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion