The aim of this study was to examine language switching in a two-digit number naming task. In contrast to single digits, two-digit numbers have a composition rule (i.e., morphological configuration) that may differ between languages. For example, the Arabic number 21 is read with an inverted composition rule in German (unit before decade) and a non-inverted composition rule in English (decade before unit). In the present experiment, one group of German native speakers and one group of Spanish native speakers had to name two-digit numbers in German, English, or Spanish. The results demonstrate a language-switch cost, revealing better performance in language repetition than in language-switch trials. This switch cost was further modulated by repeating or switching the composition rule, since the language repetition benefit (i.e., the switch cost) was reduced in trials with composition-rule switches compared with trials with composition-rule repetitions. This finding indicates that the language in which the number word has to be produced and its composition rule are not switched independently but rather may be integrated into one language schema.

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Language-switch costs, which denote worse performance in language-switch than in language-repetition trials, appear to be a robust finding in bilingual language switching. The aim of the present study was to examine the intraindividual reliability of language-switch costs by means of a number-naming task with German-English bilinguals. Design/methodology/approach: In a cued language-switching paradigm, participants ( n = 36) switched between German and English. They performed a number-naming task in three different conditions: one-digit numbers; two-digit numbers with decade 10; and two-digit numbers with decade 20. Data and analysis: We examined the experimental effects with an analysis of variance (reaction time and error rate as the dependent variables), using trial language, language sequence and number condition as independent variables. In addition, we calculated the split-half reliability of language-switch costs (across all conditions) as well as the correlations of language-switch costs between the different conditions. Findings/conclusions: While significant language-switch costs emerged in all three number conditions, our results demonstrate a medium-sized correlation between the three experimental conditions. The split-half reliability shows a moderate to strong correlation between the odd- and even-numbered trials in the experiment. Originality: On the one hand, the present study extends the observation of language-switch costs from one-digit number naming to the more complex naming of two-digit numbers. On the other hand, and theoretically even more important, we explored the reliability of language-switch costs in a bilingual number-naming task by calculating both split-half reliability and correlations between different number conditions. Significance/implications: The results indicated that while language-switch costs are a robust experimental effect on the group level, they appear to be less well suited for correlational approaches. This also suggests that caution should be exerted when language-switch costs are used to diagnose the ability of an individual to perform language control.

The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay of morphological configuration switching and language switching. The morphological configuration is present in word-formation whenever a word contains more than one free morpheme. The morphological configuration is variable both within and between languages for example in two-digit number names (is the decade named first as in twenty-one or the unit named first as in seventeen) and in compound words (is the modifier or the head named first). In the present experiments, participants had to switch between morphological configurations and between languages (German, English, and Spanish). Language-switch cost was measured as the performance difference between language-switch trials and language-repetition trials. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants performed language-comprehension tasks on two-digit numbers and a language-production task on compound words in Experiment 3. All three experiments revealed an under-additive switch cost pattern in which a larger language-switch cost occurred in morphological configuration-repetition trials than in morphological configuration-switch trials. Thus, the present data indicate integration of the morphological configuration and language into one language-related schema-irrespective of the language task (comprehension vs. production) and the type of stimuli (number words vs. compound nouns).

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