My word! Interference from reading object names implies a role for competition during picture name retrieval

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Experimental Psychology

Background:

• Word primes can interfere with subsequent picture naming, a phenomenon known as word-to-picture interference.
• Recent theories suggest this interference arises from postlexical response exclusion rather than lexical selection competition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if word-to-picture interference effects stem from response exclusion mechanisms or strategic processing of word primes.
• To differentiate between intrinsic word processing and controlled strategic processing in semantic interference.

Main Methods:

• Participants (n=48) performed a picture-naming task with semantically related and unrelated word primes.
• Intervening filler stimuli and a backward counting task were used to manipulate processing.
• A surprise recall test assessed episodic memory of prime words.

Main Results:

• Semantic interference effects were observed but were independent of the gap duration after the prime word.
• Interference effects were not correlated with episodic recall of the prime words.
• Naming times and errors indicated interference was linked to intrinsic word prime processing.

Conclusions:

• Slowed picture naming times are more likely caused by processes inherent to word prime processing.
• The findings do not support a postlexical response exclusion account for word-to-picture interference.
• Results suggest interference may involve competition at or before lexical access.