Davidson, D.
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, Donostia, Spain
The subsequent memory paradigm has been used extensively in lexical memory research to examine how the electrophysiological features of encoding and retrieval practice are related to subsequent recall, but the characteristics of this process are not yet clear for learners of a second language (L2). We examined the paired-associate learning of Spanish-Basque translation pairs in a subsequent memory paradigm using magnetoencephalography. Native Spanish-speaking participants (n=18) heard noun pairs presented as a list in an encoding phase, followed by retrieval practice in an explicit cued recall phase. This encoding-retrieval procedure was repeated four times per list. The results showed that recall for the words in the pairs improved with retrieval practice, as expected. A sensor-level analysis of the mid-latency (400-700 ms) evoked activity to the probe word in the recall phase showed a larger amplitude response to later-forgotten, compared to later-remembered probes, akin to a subsequent forgetting effect. In addition, the amplitude of the response to the Spanish words was greater than that of the Basque words. The results suggest that the electrophysiological characteristics of L2 subsequent memory are distinct from classical subsequent memory effects, which has been observed mainly in response to native language stimuli.