Jiao Lu, Wang Zejun, Duan Xiaoting, Yu Yingying, Liu Cong
Department of Psychology, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
Brain, Cognition, and Language Learning Laboratory, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jan 13;15(1):60. doi: 10.3390/bs15010060.
In the present study, we set out to examine the effect of background noise on bilingual language comprehension between a person's first language (L1) and second language (L2). Language control systems seem to systematically engage in bilingual language production, as evidenced by the presence of switch costs with slower responses to switch trials than repeat trials. However, this systematic engagement does not uniformly apply to comprehension, as the involvement of language control in bilingual comprehension may vary depending on external contexts. In two experiments, we investigated how background noise influenced language switching in comprehension for unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. Overall, when comprehending words from two languages, participants experienced significant language switch costs across all conditions, but smaller switch costs were observed in the noise condition than in the quiet condition. However, the symmetrical patterns of switch costs were not modulated by background noise. This is the first study that supports the flexibility of bilingual language comprehension depending on the presence of background noise, expanding the adaptive control hypothesis.
在本研究中，我们着手探究背景噪音对一个人的第一语言（L1）和第二语言（L2）之间双语语言理解的影响。语言控制系统似乎会系统地参与双语语言产出，这一点从转换代价的存在得到证明，即转换试验的反应比重复试验更慢。然而，这种系统参与并不统一适用于理解，因为语言控制在双语理解中的参与可能会因外部环境而异。在两项实验中，我们研究了背景噪音如何影响非平衡汉英双语者在理解中的语言转换。总体而言，当理解来自两种语言的单词时，参与者在所有条件下都经历了显著的语言转换代价，但在噪音条件下观察到的转换代价小于安静条件下的转换代价。然而，转换代价的对称模式并未受到背景噪音的调节。这是第一项支持双语语言理解灵活性取决于背景噪音存在的研究，扩展了适应性控制假说。
