The Influencing Factors Of Switching Costs And Mixing Costs In Sentences Processing Of Chinese-English Bilinguals

Previous studies on bilingual language-switching mainly focused on the production of isolated vocabulary,and seldom involved the language-switching mechanism in the process of sentence production.The switching costs and mixing costs in the vocabulary production process are mainly affected by language proficiency,preparation time and task difficulty.The switching costs are measured as the difference in performance between repetition trials and switch trials in the mixed language-block.The mixing costs refer to the difference between the repetition trials in the mixed language-block and trials in the single-language block.The preparation time is the time interval between the language cue and the stimulus.Sentences,as the main level of language in our communication process,consume more resources in processing sentences than in processing isolated words,which is theoretically different from the generating mechanism of isolated words.Therefore,this study will explore the switching costs and mixing costs of bilinguals with different proficiency in producing three different sentence patterns(affirmative,negative and double negative)at different preparation times based on language-switching paradigm.The present study selected 40 proficient bilinguals and 40 non-proficient bilinguals.All the proficient bilinguals have passed TEM-8.The non-proficient bilinguals were senior college students and failed in CET-4 many times.The preparation time was set to 1250 ms,900ms and 500 ms respectively.Therefore,this study explored the effects of language proficiency,preparation time and task difficulty(sentence difficulty)on the two costs of sentence processing through three experiments.Experiment 1,Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 respectively explored the influence of language proficiency and preparation time on the two kinds of costs when two types of bilinguals produced affirmative sentences,negative sentences and double negative sentences.Experiment 1 found that non-proficient bilinguals have switching costs and mixing costs in producing Chinese affirmative sentences under three kinds of preparation time,and there are ?switching benefits? and ?mixing benefits? in English affirmative sentences.The relationship between switching costs and "switching benefits" and preparation time was inverted "U".The mixing costs("mixing benefits")decreased(increased)with the increase of preparation time.The proficient bilinguals generated ?switching benefits? and ?mixing benefits? in producing the Chinese and English affirmative sentences under the three preparation conditions.The relationship between "switching benefits" and preparation time was inverted "U",and "mixing benefits" decreasing with the increase of preparation time.In experiment 2,it was found that there were switching costs and mixing costs in the production of Chinese negative sentences by non-proficient bilinguals under three preparation times,and there were "switching benefits" and "mixing benefits" in the production of English negative sentences.The relationship between switching costs and "switching benefits" and preparation time was inverted "U",while the relationship between mixing costs and "mixing benefits" and preparation time was "U";only "switching benefits" existed in the proficient bilinguals."switching benefits" and "mixing benefits" decreasing with the increase of preparation time.In experiment 3,it was found that there were switching costs and mixing costs in the production of Chinese double negative sentences by non-proficient bilinguals under three preparation times,and there are switching costs and "mixing benefits" in the production of English double negative sentences,which show asymmetry of switching costs.The switching costs and "mixing benefits" decrease with the increase of preparation time;skilled bilinguals also have switching costs as well as asymmetry and "mixing benefits",and decreasing with the increase of preparation time.But the "mixing benefits" of Chinese double negative sentence increased with the increase of preparation time,while the "mixing benefits" of English double negative sentence decreased with the increase of preparation time.Accordingly,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)Language proficiency and preparation time and sentence difficulty lead to switching costs and mixing costs of different modes.(2)The increase in sentence difficulty leads to an increase in reaction time.There are switching costs,switching benefits,asymmetry,mixing costs,mixing benefits,and asymmetry in generating affirmative sentences;there are switching costs,switching benefits,and asymmetry,mixing costs,mixing benefits,and asymmetry in generating negative sentences;Negative sentences have switching costs as well as asymmetry,mixing costs,and mixing benefits.(3)Language proficiency can affect the response time.The response time of proficient bilinguals is less than that of non-proficient bilinguals;non-proficient bilinguals tend to show greater switching and mixing costs when they produce proficient languages,and there are switching benefits and mixing benefits when non-proficient languages are produced;proficient bilinguals tend to have switching benefits,mixing benefits and asymmetry,and there will be switching costs when task difficulty increases.(4)The response time decreases with the increase of preparation time.