ABSTRACT-After immersion in a foreign language, speakers often have difficulty retrieving native-language words-a phenomenon known as first-language attrition. We propose that first-language attrition arises in part from the suppression of native-language phonology during second-language use, and thus is a case of phonological retrieval-induced forgetting. In two experiments, we investigated this hypothesis by having native English speakers name visual objects in a language they were learning (Spanish). Repeatedly naming the objects in Spanish reduced the accessibility of the corresponding English words, as measured by an independent-probe test of inhibition. The results establish that the phonology of the words was inhibited, as access to the concepts underlying the presented objects was facilitated, not impaired. More asymmetry between English and Spanish fluency was associated with more inhibition for native-language words. This result supports the idea that inhibition plays a functional role in overcoming interference during the early stages of second-language acquisition.

Recent data (T. J. Perfect, C. J. A. Moulin, M. A. Conway, & E. Perry, 2002) have suggested that retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) depends on conceptual memory because the effect is not found in perceptually driven tasks. In 3 experiments, the authors aimed to show that the presence of RIF depends on whether the procedure induces appropriate transfer between representations and competition rather than on the nature of the final test. The authors adapted the standard paradigm to introduce lexical categories (words that shared the first 2 letters) at study and practice. Direct and indirect fragment completion tests were used at retrieval. The results showed significant RIF effects in perceptually driven tasks. Furthermore, they indicated that the presence of RIF effects depended on using adequate cuing to induce competition during the retrieval practice and on the final memory test tapping the inhibited representation.

These findings suggest that the Distractor Devaluation effect previously reported in the attention field can be generalized to memory. This is one the first studies to show an influence of memory processes, namely forgetting, on emotion.

Memory retrieval is often challenged by other irrelevant competing memories that cause interference. This phenomenon is typically studied with the retrieval practice paradigm in which a category cue (e.g., Fruits) is presented together with an item-specific cue (e.g., Or::). Presentation of the category cue usually induces interference by reactivating competing memories (e.g., Banana, Apple, etc.), which is thought to be solved by means of inhibition, leading to retrieval-induced forgetting of these competing memories. Previous studies associated interference with an increase in medial prefrontal theta band (4-8 Hz) oscillations, but these studies could not disentangle the interference from the inhibition processes. We here used a retrieval practice procedure in which the category cue was presented before the item-specific cue to disentangle the interference from the inhibition signal. Furthermore, a competitive retrieval condition was contrasted with a noncompetitive condition. At a behavioral level, retrieval-induced forgetting was found in the competitive but not in the noncompetitive condition. At a neural level, presentation of the category cue elicited higher levels of theta power in the competitive condition, when compared with the noncompetitive retrieval condition. Importantly, this difference was localized to the ACC, which has been associated with the detection and mediation of interference. Additionally, theta power decreased upon presentation of the item-specific cue, and this difference was related to later forgetting. Our results therefore disentangle, for the first time, interference and inhibition in episodic memory retrieval and suggest that theta oscillations track the fine-grained temporal dynamics of interference during competitive memory retrieval.

Knowledge of specific characteristics of verbal material is imperative in cognitive research, and this need calls for periodical updating of normative data. With this aim, and considering that the most recent Spanish-language category norms for adults date back to more than 30 years ago, and that they do not include some very common categories, a new normative study was conducted. In this study, production data for exemplars in the 56 categories of Battig and Montague (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80, 1-46, 1969) were collected from a pool of 284 young adults who were native speakers of Spanish using an exemplar production task. With the goal of providing a useful tool for cognitive research to be conducted with Spanish-speaking samples, indices of frequency, rank, and lexical availability for the exemplars of each category are provided in a computerized database. The norms described are available for downloading as supplemental material with this article.