The gradient effect of context on language switching and lexical access in bilingual production

Abstract

ABSTRACTPrevious research on bilingual language switching costs has demonstrated asymmetrical switch costs, driven primarily by language dominance, such that switches into a more dominant language incur significantly greater reaction time delays than switches into a less dominant language. While such studies have generally relied on a fixed ratio of switch to nonswitch tokens, it is clear that bilinguals operate not in a fixed ratio, but along a naturally occurring bilingual continuum of modes or contexts. Bridging the concepts of language switching and language context, the current study examines language switching costs through a cued picture-naming study with variable contexts or modes. The results demonstrate that switch costs are dependent upon both language dominance and language context, with asymmetrical costs found in more monolingual modes and symmetrical costs found in bilingual modes. Implications are discussed with respect to language mode and gradient inhibitory mechanisms of language selection.