Abstract

In everyday conversation, bilingual individuals switch between languages not only in reaction to monolinguals with different language profiles but also voluntarily and naturally. However, whether and how various switching contexts dynamically modulate the domain-general control were still illusive. Using a cross-task paradigm which flanker task was interleaved with language switching task trial-by-trial, the present study manipulated forced, voluntary and natural switching contexts. A group of unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals performed a flanker task in the three switching contexts. The results showed that the cross-domain interaction on the P3 effect revealed an atypical flanker effect in forced switching contexts only, and P3 amplitude of incongruent trials in forced switching contexts was smaller than both natural and voluntary switching contexts. Furthermore, the robust brain-brain and brain-behavior relationships between language control and domain-general control were significantly emerged in the forced switching context only. Altogether, our findings support the dynamic adaptation of language control to cognitive control and highlight the importance of switching contexts.