Picture-Word Interference Effects Are Robust With Covert Retrieval, With and Without Gamification.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm is crucial for studying word retrieval but faces online implementation challenges due to vocal reaction time reliance.
• Investigating covert naming avoids articulatory artifacts, offering a valuable alternative for neuroimaging and online assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt the PWI paradigm for covert picture naming, exploring interference and facilitation effects.
• To assess the impact of gamification on task performance and its utility in revealing word retrieval dynamics.
• To determine the temporal order of categorical interference and phonological facilitation in word retrieval.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments utilized a covert picture naming task with audio word distractors (unrelated, phonological, associative, categorical).
• Participants judged the final phoneme of the picture name, with varying stimulus-onset-asynchronies (SOAs).
• Gamification (coin collection) was introduced in later experiments to assess its effect on speed-accuracy trade-offs.

Main Results:

• Categorical interference and phonological facilitation effects were replicated at optimal SOAs.
• Gamification increased response speed at the cost of accuracy, but interference and facilitation effects persisted.
• Categorical interference was found to occur earlier than phonological facilitation.

Conclusions:

• Categorical interference and phonological facilitation are inherent to word retrieval, independent of articulation.
• The covert PWI paradigm, especially with gamification, offers a sensitive tool for studying word retrieval and developing online assessments.
• This methodology is valuable for neuroimaging studies where articulatory processes can confound results.