Gade Miriam, Declerck Mathieu, Philipp Andrea M, Rey-Mermet Alodie, Koch Iring
Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Department of Psychology, General Psychology.
Medical School Berlin, Department of Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
J Cogn. 2021 Sep 13;4(1):55. doi: 10.5334/joc.186. eCollection 2021.
Two seemingly counterintuitive phenomena - asymmetrical language switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect - prove to be particularly controversial in the literature on language control. Asymmetrical language switch costs refer to the larger costs for switching into the dominant language compared to switching into the less dominant language, both relative to staying in either one language. The reversed language dominance effect refers to longer reaction times when in the more dominant of the two languages in situations that require frequent language switching (i.e., mixed-language blocks). The asymmetrical language switch costs are commonly taken as an index for processes of transient, reactive inhibitory language control, whereas the reversed language dominance effect is taken as an index for sustained, proactive inhibitory language control. In the present meta-analysis, we set out to establish the empirical evidence for these two phenomena using a Bayesian linear mixed effects modelling approach. Despite the observation of both phenomena in some studies, our results suggest that overall, there is little evidence for the generality and robustness of these two effects, and this holds true even when conditions - such as language proficiency and preparation time manipulations - were included as moderators of these phenomena. We conclude that asymmetrical switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect are important for theory development, but their utility for theory testing is limited due to their lack of robustness and the absence of confirmed moderatory variables.
两种看似违反直觉的现象——不对称语言转换成本和反向语言优势效应——在语言控制的文献中尤其具有争议性。不对称语言转换成本是指相较于转换到不太占主导地位的语言，转换到主导语言的成本更高，这两种情况都是相对于停留在单一语言而言的。反向语言优势效应是指在需要频繁语言转换的情境（即混合语言组块）中，使用两种语言中更占主导地位的语言时反应时间更长。不对称语言转换成本通常被视为瞬时、反应性抑制性语言控制过程的指标，而反向语言优势效应则被视为持续性、主动性抑制性语言控制的指标。在本荟萃分析中，我们着手使用贝叶斯线性混合效应建模方法为这两种现象建立实证证据。尽管在一些研究中观察到了这两种现象，但我们的结果表明，总体而言，几乎没有证据支持这两种效应的普遍性和稳健性，即使将诸如语言熟练度和准备时间操纵等条件作为这些现象的调节变量时也是如此。我们得出结论，不对称转换成本和反向语言优势效应对于理论发展很重要，但由于它们缺乏稳健性且没有得到证实的调节变量，它们在理论检验中的效用有限。
