Bilingual language control adapts to language switching training: More ERP evidence from late unbalanced bilinguals

The present study examines the influence of language switching training on language control in bilingual language production. A group of late unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals took an eight-day language switching training, during which they named pictures in the language indicated by a simultaneously presented visual cue. Before and after training, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants did a similar language switching task with a cue preceding a picture for 800 ms. The results of stimulus-locked ERPs revealed that after training, the N2 switch effect disappeared, and the overall N2 amplitude increased for both the trained materials and the well-matched untrained materials. These results indicate that language switching training results in less dependency on inhibitory control and stronger response selection with reduction of interference. This study provides further evidence that the language control mechanism can be modulated by language switching experience and suggests an adaptive bilingual language control mechanism.