The temporal dynamics of bilingual language control.

Bilinguals need to control interference from the nontarget language, to avoid saying words in the wrong language. This study investigates how often bilinguals apply such control in a dual-language mode, when speaking one language after the other when the two languages cannot be used interchangeably: over and over (every time they say a word), or only once (the first time they use a word or language after a language switch). Three groups of Spanish-English bilinguals named pictures first in their dominant, then in their nondominant, and then again in their dominant language; a fourth control group of bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language throughout.