[EN]We constructed Deese–Roediger–McDermott lists using both Spanish and English free association norms. Lists were constructed
to vary in backward associative strength (BAS). Experiment 1 participants were native Spanish speakers with some
proficiency in English while Experiment 2 participants were native Spanish participants that had either high, intermediate,
or low English proficiency. Results showed that, in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, false recognition was greater in
participants’ dominant language (L1 or Spanish) than in their non-dominant language (L2 or English), and false recognition
in L2 increased with L2 proficiency when low-BAS lists were studied (Experiment 2). Further, false recognition was higher
in high-BAS lists than in low-BAS lists in both L1 and L2. Finally, we collected a measure of participants’ knowledge of
our stimulus words in L2. These data showed that participants had far from perfect knowledge of all L2 stimuli. Analyses
that factored out the effects of L2 word knowledge failed to alter the effects of L1 vs. L2, L2 proficiency and BAS on false
recognition.
