RETROACTIVE INHIBITION WITH BILINGUALS

40 BILINGUALS LEARNED 2 PAIRED-ASSOCIATE LISTS, AN ENGLISH LIST AND A SPANISH LIST, AND THEN RELEARNED THE 1ST LIST. THE TRANSFER PARADIGM USED WAS A-B, A'-B'R WHERE THE ITEMS OF THE 2ND LIST ARE TRANSLATIONS OF THE 1ST BUT WITH THE TRANSLATED STIMULI BEING RE-PAIRED WITH DIFFERENT TRANSLATED RESPONSES. IN CONTRAST TO EXPECTATIONS FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH, THE RETROACTIVE INHIBITION (RI) OBTAINED WAS RELATED NEITHER TO THE DOMINANT LANGUAGE OF S NOR TO THE ORDER OF THE LISTS LEARNED. THE RI OBTAINED IS CONSIDERED IN LIGHT OF THE HYPOTHESIS THAT NONREINFORCED EVOCATION OF THE 1ST-LIST RESPONSES DURING 2ND-LIST LEARNING IS RELATED TO RI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1968 American Psychological Association.