Language switch costs in a lexical decision task: Symmetry and cognitive correlates

Abstract

Language switch costs have been explored less in receptive tasks than in productive tasks, and previous studies have produced mixed findings with regard to switch cost symmetry and the relationship of switch costs to executive function. To address these unresolved gaps, one hundred Chinese–English bilingual adults completed a bilingual lexical decision task and three tasks measuring executive function, and we used mixed effects models and correlational analyses to answer the two research questions. The results showed asymmetry with larger costs into the second language, but this was qualified by interactions with response sequence effects. No evidence was found for a relationship between switch costs and inhibition or shifting. Together, rather than supporting a model involving top-down control mechanisms as has been suggested to account for switch cost patterns in productive tasks, these findings support a bottom-up, activation-based model of bilingual word recognition and receptive language switching.