Abstract
Studies of semantic interference in language production have provided evidence for a role of cognitive control mechanisms in regulating the activation of semantic competitors during naming. The present study investigated the relationship between individual differences in cognitive control abilities, for both younger and older adults, and the degree of semantic interference in a blocked cyclic naming task. We predicted that individuals with lower working memory capacity (as measured by word span), lesser ability to inhibit distracting responses (as measured by Stroop interference), and a lesser ability to resolve proactive interference (as measured by a recent negatives task) would show a greater increase in semantic interference in naming, with effects being larger for older adults. Instead, measures of cognitive control were found to relate to specific indices of semantic interference in the naming task, rather than overall degree of semantic interference, and few interactions with age were found, with younger and older adults performing similarly. The increase in naming latencies across naming trials within a cycle was negatively correlated with word span for both related and unrelated conditions, suggesting a strategy of narrowing response alternatives based upon memory for the set of item names. Evidence for a role of inhibition in response selection was obtained, as Stroop interference correlated positively with the change in naming latencies across cycles for the related, but not unrelated, condition. In contrast, recent negatives interference correlated negatively with the change in naming latencies across unrelated cycles, suggesting that individual differences in this tap the degree of strengthening of links in a lexical network based upon prior exposure. Results are discussed in terms of current models of lexical selection and consequences for word retrieval in more naturalistic production.
Highlights
The ability of speakers to quickly and precisely select words from the mental lexicon is fundamental for the production of fluent and accurate speech
As discussed in the introduction, many researchers have assumed that word selection is a competitive process in which a target word must be selected from semantically related competitors and some evidence has been put forward that inhibition abilities are involved in resolving this competition
In conclusion, the current study addressed the source of semantic interference in naming as found in semantically blocked cyclic naming paradigms
Summary
The ability of speakers to quickly and precisely select words from the mental lexicon is fundamental for the production of fluent and accurate speech. We investigated the processes involved when speakers produce the name of a picture in the context of naming other semantically related or unrelated items. We assessed the role of cognitive control mechanisms in picture naming using the semantically blocked cyclic naming task. For each cycle within a block, the same four items are presented in a different random order with some constraints on immediate repetition across cycles. In this fashion, all of the same items are named in both related and unrelated blocks, eliminating item-specific effects across conditions. The largest increase in the semantic blocking effect occurs between cycle 1, where no difference or even a semantic facilitation effect is observed, to cycle 2, where
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