The role of subjective frequency in language switching: an ERP investigation using masked priming.
Two experiments examined the nature of language-switching effects in a priming paradigm with event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings. primes and targets were always unrelated words but could be either from the same or different languages (Experiment 1) or from the same or a different frequency range (Experiment 2). Effects of switching language across prime and target differed as a function of the direction of the switch and prime duration in Experiment 1. Effects tended to be stronger with 100-ms prime durations than with 50-ms durations, and the expected pattern of greater negativity in the switch condition appeared earlier when primes were in L1 and targets in L2 than vice versa. Experiment 2 examined whether these language-switching effects could be due to differences in the subjective frequency of words in a bilingual's two languages, by testing a frequency-switching manipulation within the L1. Effects of frequency switching were evident in the ERP waveforms, but the pattern did not resemble the language-switching effects, therefore suggesting that different mechanisms are at play.
Tufts University, Medford, USA.
Krysta
K
Chauncey
Jonathan
J
Grainger
Phillip J
PJ
Holcomb
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
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