Semantic interference in immediate and delayed naming and reading: Attention and task decisions

One of the workhorses in studying spoken word production is the picture-word interference paradigm (PWI). In this paradigm, speakers are instructed to ignore superimposed written distractor words while fulfilling the picture-naming task. An essential finding in picture - word interference paradigm is that people spend more time in naming pictures when distractor word is of the same category as the picture naming (semantic related word) than when the distractor is unrelated. That effect is often referred to as semantic interference effect (SIE). A reversed finding is that pictures naming latency is shorter in condition of related words than in condition of unrelated words. That effect is referred to as semantic facilitation At present, there are several theories about the nature and level of effects in picture - word interference paradigm. Lexical selection by competition hypothesis assumes that SIE is the result of competition between the representations of related distractor word and the target word and then arises at lexical level. Conceptual selection model interprets the effects as the result of competition between the representations of distractor conception and the target conception. As a result, effect should arise at level. Response selection account proposes that there is a single-channel output buffer in word production and the non –target response would occupy the buffer earlier than the target. It will take some time to exclude the non-target response from the buffer and induces SIE. So SIE arises at the post-lexical stage in word production. Each account has its experimental evidence and each has its difficulty in explaining some phenomenon. In the present study, 2 experiments were conducted to investigate the universality of current theories and to explore the roles of similarity and category size on effect in PWI. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to name pictures accompanied by words with high similarity or words with low similarity at either basic level or at category level. Results showed a shorter picture - naming latency in condition of high similarity distractor words than in condition of low similarity words, leading to significant similarity effect. Nevertheless, similarity effect occurred in basic - level naming rather than in category - level naming and the effect was stronger for low familiar pictures than for high familiar ones. Experiment 1 also showed that latency of category - level naming was shorter than that of basic-level naming and high familiar pictures were named faster than low familiar ones. Combining previous studies, these results suggested that the intensity of relationship between pictures and words would affect the direction of effect in the PWI. Semantic facilitation effect will be foundwhen there is strong relationship between pictures and words. Otherwise, interference will be found. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to name pictures accompanied by related words or by unrelated words. Thirty pictures from large size of category and another thirty pictures from small size of category were chosen for this experiment. Results showed that related words had rather different influences on pictures naming in different condition. They would promote pictures category-level naming, thus giving rise to facilitation effect. However, they would interference pictures basic-level naming, thus causing interference effect. Category size had a prominent influence on these effects. Semantic interference effect would be stronger for large size of category pictures in basic-level naming and facilitation effect also would be stronger for big size of category pictures in category-level naming. Combining previous studies, the experiment suggested that the range of relationship between pictures and words affects the size of effect. When there is wide range of relationship, the effect will became stronger. Otherwise, the effect will be weaker. Single current theory of effect couldn’t give a proper explanation for the findings in this study. Results in this study were discussed with reference to the equilibrium between conceptual priming and lexical competition. If the conceptual priming overweight the lexical competition, facilitation effect would be found, otherwise interference would be found.

One of the major debates in the field of word production is whether lexical selection is competitive or not. For nearly half a century, semantic interference effects in picture naming latencies have been claimed as evidence for competitive (relative threshold) models of lexical selection, while semantic facilitation effects have been claimed as evidence for non-competitive (simple threshold) models instead. In this paper, we use a computational modeling approach to compare the consequences of competitive and noncompetitive selection algorithms for blocked cyclic picture naming latencies, combined with two approaches to representing taxonomic and thematic semantic features. We show that although our simple model can capture both semantic interference and facilitation, the presence or absence of competition in the selection mechanism is unrelated to the polarity of these semantic effects. These results question the validity of prior assumptions and offer new perspectives on the origins of interference and facilitation in language production.

Picture-naming studies have demonstrated interference from semantic-categorically related distractor words, but not from corresponding distractor pictures, and the lack of generality of the interference effect has been argued to challenge theories viewing lexical selection in speech production as a competitive process. Here, we demonstrate that semantic interference from context pictures does become visible, if sufficient attention is allocated to them. We combined picture naming with a spatial-cuing procedure. When participants' attention was shifted to the distractor, semantically related distractor pictures interfered with the response, as compared with unrelated distractor pictures. This finding supports models conceiving lexical retrieval as competitive (Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999) but is difficult to reconcile with the response exclusion hypothesis (Finkbeiner & Caramazza, 2006b) proposed as an alternative.

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Prominent speech production models view lexical access as a competitive process. According to these models, a semantically related distractor picture should interfere with target picture naming more strongly than an unrelated one. However, several studies failed to obtain such an effect. Here, we demonstrate that semantic interference is obtained, when the distractor picture is sufficiently processed. Participants named one of two pictures presented in close temporal succession, with color cueing the target. Experiment 1 induced the prediction that the target appears first. When this prediction was violated (distractor first), semantic interference was observed. Experiment 2 ruled out that the time available for distractor processing was the driving force. These results show that semantically related distractor pictures interfere with the naming response when they are sufficiently processed. The data thus provide further support for models viewing lexical access as a competitive process.

Background: Event-related changes in the EEG power spectrum have recently been used to study functional brain activation in humans. Like traditional event-related potentials, event-related spectral changes provide information about the temporal evolution of cortical activation that is difficult to obtain with fMRI or PET. These spectral changes include event-related suppression of power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) and even-related augmentation of power in the gamma band (>30 Hz). Most studies of the gamma band have focused on frequencies in and around 40 Hz. Using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals recorded with subdural electrodes implanted for the surgical management of epilepsy, we have also observed a broadband augmentation of power in higher gamma frequencies (>80 Hz). This index of cortical activation has compared favourably with alpha suppression and with electrical cortical stimulation mapping in studies utilising simple motor and auditory processing, but such a comparison has not been done for tasks requiring more complex language processing. Aims: We used two different spectral indices of cortical activation - alpha power suppression and gamma power augmentation, to study the spatial and temporal patterns of human cortical activation during different word production tasks. Methods: Subdural ECoG electrodes were implanted for clinical purposes in a patient with normal hearing, who had learned sign language as an adult and later developed intractable epilepsy. We measured event-related spectral changes during language tasks with different input and output modalities: Picture naming and word reading (visual inputs), and word repetition (auditory input) were performed with spoken responses (oral-articulatory output) and with signed responses (manual-gestural output). In addition we used a visually guided motor task to map tongue and hand representations independent of language. Results: Speech and signing differentially activated tongue and hand regions of sensorimotor cortex. Although posterior superior temporal gyrus was activated early during auditory word repetition, picture naming and word reading also activated this region, albeit slightly later, consistent with phonological and/or lexical-semantic processing. In contrast, basal temporal-occipital cortex was activated earlier and with greater magnitude during picture naming and word reading than during word repetition, suggesting semantic processing or object and word recognition. In all of the tasks, event-related gamma augmentation occurred in more discrete spatial and temporal patterns than event-related alpha suppression. Conclusions: Event-related alpha suppression and gamma augmentation provide complementary information about task-related cortical activation. This study demonstrates the utility of ECoG spectral analysis for studying the functional anatomy of human language with excellent temporal resolution.

The semantic interference effect in the picture-word interference task is interpreted as an index of lexical competition in prominent speech production models. Janssen, Schirm, Mahon, and Caramazza (2008) challenged this interpretation on the basis of experiments with a novel version of this task, which introduced a task-switching component. Participants either named the picture or read the word, depending on the word's color. Janssen et al. reported semantic interference in picture naming, regardless of whether the word appeared simultaneously with the picture (immediate naming) or 1,000 ms after the picture (delayed naming). Because picture name retrieval is completed in less than 1,000 ms, the finding in delayed naming was taken as evidence against the lexical competition account. In 3 sets of experiments conducted in German and English, we tested for semantic effects in Janssen et al.'s task-switching version and in the standard picture-word interference task. Using identical materials, we obtained sizeable interference effects in the standard task (Experiments 2, 4, and 6) but no effects in the task-switching version (Experiments 1, 3, and 5). When the word reading trials of the task-switching version were replaced with no-go trials (Experiment 7), semantic interference reemerged in immediate naming but was still absent in delayed naming. The experiments question the reliability of Janssen et al.'s critical finding and suggest that theoretical inferences about the origin of semantic effects in the standard picture-word interference task based on results from the task-switching version used by Janssen et al. are difficult to draw.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of static gesture cues on word learning and integration. Following embodied theories of language, gesture-enhanced images displaying the object-use gesture should favor learning and integration of object nouns. Sixty-two adult French speakers learned low-familiarity French nouns of manipulable objects (e.g., "étrille" - currycomb) with gesture-enhanced or neutral images during a short learning session. Immediately after, word recognition (lexical decision) and word production (Picture-Word Interference, PWI) tasks were used to evaluate the impact of image type on word learning and lexical integration, respectively. In the PWI, participants had to name a picture of a familiar object (e.g. "brosse" - brush) while ignoring a written distractor word. Words learned with gesture-enhanced or neutral images were used as distractors. Depending on the condition, they could be semantically related ("étrille" - currycomb) or unrelated ("burin" - chisel) to the target object to name. A control condition with unrelated distractor words not involved in learning ("salière" - salt shaker) was also added. Naming latencies in presence of related distractors, compared to unrelated distractors, indicated whether learned lexical representations engaged in competition during production. Lexical decision results did not show any influence of the image condition used during learning on word recognition. Critically, however, PWI results demonstrated that words trained with gesture-enhanced pictures entailed semantic interference effects during naming. Words trained with neutral pictures did not induce semantic interference. Findings highlight the relevance of gesture cues for lexico-semantic integration of object nouns and suggest considering the role of contextual images in vocabulary acquisition.

Interference in picture naming by task-irrelevant words in Stroop-like paradigms has been interpreted as evidence of automatic semantic processing of unattended words. However, this effect may have been due to attentional rather than automatic processing. To test this hypothesis, subjects were instructed either to ignore task-irrelevant words (selective attention) or to attend to them (divided attention). Three separate dependent measures (interference in picture naming, recognition memory, and confidence ratings) provided converging evidence about subjects’ attentional strategies. It was predicted that semantic interference would occur in the divided attention condition, but not when subjects attended selectively to the picture and ignored the word. Contrary to predictions, semantic interference occurred in both instruction conditions. Implications for future research on automaticity are discussed.

Differences between the cognitive processes involved in word reading and picture naming are well established (e.g., visual or lexico-semantic stages). Still, it is commonly thought that retrieval of phonological forms is shared across tasks. We report a test of this second hypothesis based on the time course of electroencephalographic (EEG) neural activity, reasoning that similar EEG patterns might index similar processing stages. Seventeen participants named objects and read aloud the corresponding words while their behavior and EEG activity were recorded. The latter was analyzed from stimulus onset onward (stimulus-locked analysis) and from response onset backward (response-locked analysis), using non-parametric statistics and the spatio-temporal segmentation of ERPs. Behavioral results confirmed that reading entails shorter latencies than naming. The analysis of EEG activity within the stimulus-to-response period allowed to distinguish three phases, broadly successive. Early on, we observed identical distribution of electric field potentials (i.e., topographies) albeit with large amplitude divergences between tasks. Then, we observed sustained cross-task differences in topographies accompanied by extended amplitude differences. Finally, the two tasks again revealed the same topographies, with significant cross-task delays in their onsets and offsets, and still significant amplitude differences. In the response-locked ERPs, the common topography displayed an offset closer to response articulation in word reading compared with picture naming, that is the transition between the offset of this shared map and the onset of articulation was significantly faster in word reading. The results suggest that the degree of cross-task similarity varies across time. The first phase suggests similar visual processes of variable intensity and time course across tasks, while the second phase suggests marked differences. Finally, similarities and differences within the third phase are compatible with a shared processing stage (likely phonological processes) with different temporal properties (onset/offset) across tasks. Overall, our results provide an overview of when, between stimulus and response, word reading and picture naming are subtended by shared- versus task-specific neural signatures. This in turn is suggestive of when the two tasks involve similar vs. different cognitive processes.

The dark side of incremental learning: A model of cumulative semantic interference during lexical access in speech production

Adaptation of a semantic picture-word interference paradigm for future language mapping with transcranial magnetic stimulation: A behavioural study

Patterns of cortical interactivity supporting speech production and lexical retrieval: A graph signal processing approach at the individual level

The impact of semantic transparency of morphologically complex words on picture naming

The language representation of bilinguals and monolinguals is an essential issue in cognitive psychology. Much research has examined the bilinguals by fulfilling picture naming tasks and picture classification tasks. Results showed that bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification. Two theories were put forward to explain this phenomenon. The theory of cross-language interference assumes that mental representations of the two languages (first and second languages) have the same semantic representation and different lexical representations. Competitions among different lexical representations were involved in the process of lexical selection, therefore bilinguals should have more difficulties than monolinguals in this task. Weaker links hypothesis suggests that bilinguals have the same lexical selection mechanisms as what monolinguals have. However, bilinguals have less chances to practice either the first or the second languages, whereas monolinguals have more chances to practice their native language, so that links between semantics and phonology in bilinguals’ lexical system are weaker. How do the Mandarin-English bilinguals and Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals name pictures and categorize pictures? Is there any common points between the Mandarin-English bilinguals and Cantonese-Mandarin diglossia speakers and bilinguals of western languages? Using the task of picture naming and picture classification, 4 experiments were conducted to examine the performances of Mandarin-English bilinguals and Cantonese-Mandarin diglossia speakers. Experiment 1 and 3 investigated the differences between Mandarin-English bilinguals and Mandarin monolinguals, Cantonese-Mandarin diglossia subjects and Mandarin monolinguals with picture naming and picture classification tasks, respectively. Experiment 2 and 4 examined the same issue of experiment 1 and 3 by repeated the same pictures 5 times. 40 Mandarin-English bilinguals, 82 Mandarin monolinguals and 42 Cantonese-Mandarin diglossia undergraduates took part in these experiments. All pictures came from Snodgrass and Vanderwart. In the naming task, participants were asked to name the pictures presented on the screen of the computer as quickly and correctly as possible. In the categorizing task, participants were asked to decide whether the item a picture represents belongs to a certain category by pressing F or J on the keyboards of the computer. Results showed an asymmetric effect of bilingualism and diglossia on picture naming and picture classification. Bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language more slowly and with more errors than monolinguals did. In contrast, bilinguals, and Cantonese-Mandarin diglossia as well, named pictures as quickly as monolinguals did and classified them as quickly and as accurately as monolinguals did when the items were presented four or five times. The study suggests that bilingualism and diglossia affect picture naming but not affect picture classification. The results supported the theory of cross-language interference and the hypothesis of weaker links.