Investigating the Automaticity of CodeSwitching in Proficient Bilinguals Using Masked Priming: An Ev

1
Investigating the Automaticity of Code-Switching
in Proficient BilingualsUsing Masked Priming
An Event-Related Potentials Study Krysta
Chauncey1, Katherine J. Midgley1, Jonathan
Grainger 1,2, Phillip J. Holcomb11Tufts
University, Medford, MA 2 LPC-CNRS, Université
de Provence

• Introduction
• It is widely accepted that bilinguals experience
  a code-switching cost when the language of the
  stimuli changes unexpectedly.
• Where in the language-processing stream do these
  costs occur?
• Grainger Beauvillain (1987) found that
  code-switching costs could be eliminated in the
  presence of language-specific orthographic cues,
  suggesting that these costs occur during lexical
  access.
• However, Thomas Allport (2000) found that, by
  adding a control condition, code-switching costs
  were not eliminated by the presence of
  language-specific orthography, placing these
  costs outside the lexicon (that is, in control
  processes not specific to lexical access).
• How do these costs differ as fluency increases?

English (L2) repetition trials
English (L2) within trials
English (L2) within trials
French prime, English target trials
Figure 6 F1 population, L2 repetition effect,
CP1 electrode
Figure 8 F1 population, L1-L2 code-switching
effect, CP1 electrode
Figure 3 Trial Types
English (L2) within trials
French prime, English target trials
Figure 9 F2 population, L1-L2 code-switching
effect, CP1 electrode
Figure 7 F2 population, L2 repetition effect,
CP1 electrode
2

• Methods
• Subjects
• right-handed native speakers of French
• normal or corrected-to-normal vision
• F1 population 20 subs (11 females, avg age
  20.7)
• academic instruction only in English
• F2 population 13 subs (5 males, avg age 21.7)
• avg. 3 years immersion in English
• Stimuli
• common words in English and French
• blocked by target language, order counterbalanced
• words rotation through positions in 5 lists
• 50 trials each of three types in each language
• Repetition trials
• Within-language non-repetition trials
• Between-language code-switching trials
• Task

Cz
Cz

• Conclusions
• Code-switching effect for L2-L1 found in N400
  suggests limited automatic processing of L2
• No repetition effect of L2 (English) found in F1,
  but found in F2, suggests greater automatic
  processing with increased fluency
• Additional L1-L2 code-switching cost in N400
  window for more competent population suggests
  greater semantic processing for L2

CP1
CP2
CP1
CP2
Pz
Pz
Oz
Oz
English (L2) repetition trials
French (L1) repetition trials
English (L2) within trials
French (L1) within trials
French prime, English target trials
English prime, French target trials
Figure 5 F2 population, L1-based Trial Types
Figure 4 F2 population, L2-based Trial Types
References Alvarez, R., Holcomb, P., Grainger,
J. (2003). Accessing word meaning in two
languages An event-related brain potential study
of beginning bilinguals. Brain and Language,
87(2), 290-304. Grainger, J. Beauvillain, C.
(1987). Language blocking and lexical access in
bilinguals. Quarterly Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 39A, 295-319. Thomas, M. Allport,
A. (2000). Language switching costs in bilingual
visual word recognition. Journal of Memory
Language, 43 44-66.

• Results
• In L1-based (French) trials, consistent results
  in N400 window between populations (Repetition
  Within lt Between)
• In L2-based (English) trials,
• Pop F1 No repetition effect in N400 window, but
  code-switching effect
• Pop F2 Repetition effect in N400 window, as
  well as code-switching
• For pop F1, greater code-switching cost in the
  N400 window for L2-L1 switches, but for L1-L2
  cost greater in the N250 window for L1-L2
  switches
• For pop F2, L2-L1 switches also produced costs in
  the N400 window, but L1-L2 costs occur in both
  N250 and N400 window

This research was supported by NIH Grants HD25889
and HD43251