Bilingual language interference initiates error detection: Evidence from language intrusions

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1010-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATHIEU DECLERCK ◽  
KRISTIN LEMHÖFER ◽  
JONATHAN GRAINGER

In the current study, we investigated bilingual error detection by measuring the repair rate of language intrusions (i.e., involuntary production of nontarget language words) that arose while bilinguals produced sentences in a language switching context. This allowed us to compare two prominent accounts of error detection in a bilingual setting. According to the conflict monitoring account, error detection is initiated by interference. Since language switching increases bilingual language interference, error detection should be better in switch relative to repetition trials. According to the perceptual loop theory, error detection is based on language comprehension. Since language switching is known to impair language comprehension, it follows that error detection should be worse in switch relative to repetition trials. The results showed that the repair rate of language intrusions was higher in switch than repetition trials, thus providing evidence that bilingual language interference instigates error detection, in line with the conflict monitoring account.

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. e231-e241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara G H Chan ◽  
Wei Quin Yow ◽  
Adam Oei

Abstract Objectives Experience-related neuroplasticity suggests that bilinguals who actively manage their two languages would develop more efficient neural organization at brain regions related to language control, which also overlap with areas involved in executive control. Our aim was to examine how active bilingualism—manifested as the regular balanced use of two languages and language switching—may be related to the different domains of executive control in highly proficient healthy older adult bilinguals, controlling for age, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Methods Participants were 76 community-dwelling older adults who reported being physically and mentally healthy and showed no signs of cognitive impairment. They completed a self-report questionnaire on their language background, two computer measures for previously identified covariates (processing speed as measured by two-choice reaction time (RT) task and fluid intelligence as measured by the Raven’s Progressive Matrices), as well as a battery of computerized executive control tasks (Color-shape Task Switching, Stroop, Flanker, and Spatial 2-back task). Results Regression analyses showed that, even after controlling for age, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, more balanced bilingualism usage and less frequent language switching predicted higher goal maintenance (nonswitch trials RT in Color-shape Task Switching) and conflict monitoring abilities (global RT in Color-shape Task Switching and Flanker task). Discussion Results suggest that active bilingualism may provide benefits to maintaining specific executive control abilities in older adult bilinguals against the natural age-related declines.


NeuroImage ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 96-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna S. Gauvin ◽  
Wouter De Baene ◽  
Marcel Brass ◽  
Robert J. Hartsuiker

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Egeto

Event-related potentials of performance monitoring, including N2 (conflict monitoring), error-related negativity and error positivity (ERN and Pe; error monitoring), and P3 (inhibition) have been studied. However, conflict monitoring lacks a behavioural measure, and the functional significance of ERN, Pe, and P3 are debated. To address these issues, a behavioural measure of conflict monitoring was tested by subtracting the reaction time (RT) of a simple from a choice RT task to isolate conflict monitoring; the functions of error monitoring and inhibition were examined. The RT difference correlated with the N2 area (longer conflict monitoring related to a larger N2). ERN and Pe areas were negatively and positively correlated with errors, respectively. P3 magnitude and onset were correlated with an inhibition index. The new behavioural measure provides an accessible way to study conflict monitoring. Theories of conflict monitoring for ERN, error awareness for Pe, and inhibition for P3 were replicated and extended.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
SYBRINE BULTENA ◽  
TON DIJKSTRA ◽  
JANET G. VAN HELL

This study investigated two prominent issues in the comprehension of language switches. First, how does language switching direction affect switch costs in sentence context? Second, are switch costs modulated by L2 proficiency and cross-linguistic activation? We conducted a self-paced reading task involving sentences that switched between participants’ L1 Dutch and L2 English. The cognate status of the main verb was manipulated to examine the influence of co-activation on intra-sentential switch costs. The reading times indicated the influence of switch direction: a cost was observed for switches into L2 but not for switches into L1, and the magnitude of the costs was correlated with L2 proficiency, indicating that switch costs in language comprehension depend on language dominance. Verb cognates did not yield a cognate facilitation effect nor did they influence the magnitude of switch costs in either direction. The results are interpreted in terms of an activation account explaining lexical comprehension based on L2 proficiency.


2004 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 931-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Yeung ◽  
Matthew M. Botvinick ◽  
Jonathan D. Cohen

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongjun Yu ◽  
Xiaolin Zhou

The functional significance of error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), which occurs at approximately the same time as erroneous responses, has been investigated extensively using reaction time (RT) tasks. The error detection theory assumes that the Ne/ERN reflects the mismatch detected by comparing representations of the intended and the actually performed actions. The conflict monitoring theory asserts that the Ne/ERN reflects the detection of response conflict between intended and actually performed actions during response selection. In this study, we employed a gambling task in which participants were required to choose whether they would take part in betting in each trial and they were presented with gain or loss feedback in both the “to bet” and the “not to bet” trials. The response-locked ERP magnitudes were more negative for “to bet” than for “not to bet” choices for both large and small stakes and were more negative for choices involving large rather than small stakes. Dipole source analysis localized the ERP responses to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). These findings suggest that the ACC signals the riskiness of choices and may function as an early warning system that alerts the brain to prepare for the potential negative consequence associated with a risky action.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Feuerriegel ◽  
Matthew Jiwa ◽  
William F Turner ◽  
Milan Andrejević ◽  
Robert Hester ◽  
...  

AbstractHow we exert control over our decision making has been investigated using conflict tasks, which involve stimuli containing elements that are either congruent or incongruent. In these tasks, participants adapt their decision making strategies following exposure to incongruent stimuli. According to conflict monitoring accounts, conflicting stimulus features are detected in medial frontal cortex, and the extent of experienced conflict scales with response time (RT) and frontal theta-band activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG). However, the consequent adjustments to decision processes following response conflict are not well-specified. To characterise these adjustments and their neural implementation we recorded EEG during a Flanker task. We traced the time-courses of performance monitoring processes (frontal theta) and multiple processes related to perceptual decision making. In each trial participants judged which of two overlaid gratings forming a plaid stimulus (termed the S1 target) was of higher contrast. The stimulus was divided into two sections, which each contained higher contrast gratings in either congruent or incongruent directions. Shortly after responding to the S1 target, an additional S2 target was presented, which was always congruent. Our EEG results suggest enhanced sensory evidence representations in visual cortex and reduced evidence accumulation rates for S2 targets following incongruent S1 stimuli. Frontal theta amplitudes positively correlated with RT following S1 targets (in line with conflict monitoring accounts). Following S2 targets there was no such correlation, and theta amplitude profiles instead resembled decision evidence accumulation trajectories. Based on these differing amplitude profiles across S1 and S2 we formulated a novel theory of frontal theta and performance monitoring, which accounts for differing theta amplitude profiles previously observed across tasks that do and do not involve conflict. We propose that frontal theta does not actually index conflict detection but instead reflects a more general performance monitoring process related to decision confidence and rapid error detection.


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