Tufts University, Medford, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2011 Feb;39(2):291-303. doi: 10.3758/s13421-010-0006-7.
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.
两项实验在启动范式中使用事件相关脑电位 (ERP) 记录来检验语言切换效应的本质。启动词和目标词始终是不相关的单词，但可以来自同一语言或不同语言（实验 1），也可以来自同一频率范围或不同频率范围（实验 2）。实验 1 中，跨启动词和目标词的语言切换的影响随切换方向和启动词持续时间而变化。与 50 毫秒持续时间相比，100 毫秒持续时间的启动词产生的效果更强，并且当启动词在母语中而目标词在第二语言中时，预期的开关条件下更大负性的模式出现得更早，反之亦然。实验 2 通过在母语中测试频率切换操作，检验了这些语言切换效应是否可能归因于双语者两种语言中单词的主观频率差异。在 ERP 波形中可以观察到频率切换的影响，但模式与语言切换效应不同，因此表明不同的机制在起作用。
