Does our general attentional system adapt to the language context we are in? Bilinguals switch between contexts in which only one language is present or both languages are equiprobable. Previous research by Wu and Thierry (2013) suggested that the bilingual language context can modify the workings of inhibitory control mechanisms. Here we investigate whether this can be replicated and whether other attentional mechanisms (alerting and orienting) also adjust depending on whether we are in a bilingual or a monolingual situation. Bilinguals performed the Attentional Network Task (ANT) task, which allows us to measure three types of attentional processes: alerting, orienting and executive control. Crucially, while performing the ANT task, participants also saw words presented in only one language (e.g., Catalan; monolingual context) or in two languages (Catalan and Spanish; bilingual context); this allowed us to assess whether the three attentional processes would be modified by language context. Compared to the monolingual context, in the bilingual context the target-P3 amplitude was enhanced for the alerting and executive control networks but not for the orienting network. This suggests that bilinguals’ state of alertness was enhanced when surrounded by words from two languages. Exploratory analyses reveal that within the bilingual context, language switches have an alerting effect, as indexed by a greater target-N1, thus impacting upcoming visual processing of the flanker. Response hand activation is speeded up for congruent trials in a similar way that arbitrary alerting cues speed them up. This speed-up was reflected in a greater LRP in the bilingual context, but it was not reflected in behavioral measures (RTs or ACC). Thus, a bilingual context can enhance attentional capacity towards non-linguistic information. It also reveals how flexible the cognitive system is.

我们的一般注意力系统是否适应我们所处的语言环境？双语者在只出现一种语言或两种语言都等概率的语境之间切换。Wu 和 Thierry (2013) 之前的研究表明，双语语境可以改变抑制控制机制的运作。在这里，我们调查这是否可以复制，以及其他注意力机制（警报和定向）是否也会根据我们是双语还是单语情况进行调整。双语者执行注意力网络任务 (ANT) 任务，这使我们能够测量三种类型的注意力过程：警报、定向和执行控制。至关重要的是，在执行 ANT 任务时，参与者还看到仅以一种语言呈现的单词（例如，加泰罗尼亚语；单语语境）或两种语言（加泰罗尼亚语和西班牙语；双语语境）；这使我们能够评估这三个注意过程是否会被语言上下文修改。与单语环境相比，在双语环境中，警报和执行控制网络的目标-P3 幅度得到增强，但定向网络没有。这表明双语者在被两种语言的单词包围时的警觉状态会增强。探索性分析表明，在双语环境中，语言切换具有警示作用，由更大的目标 N1 指示，从而影响侧翼即将进行的视觉处理。响应手激活以类似的方式加速一致试验，任意警报提示加速它们。这种加速反映在双语环境中更大的 LRP 上，但没有反映在行为测量（RT 或 ACC）上。因此，双语环境可以增强对非语言信息的注意力。它还揭示了认知系统的灵活性。