Abstract
The picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm has been used to investigate the time course of processes involved in word retrieval, but is challenging to implement online due to dependence on measurements of vocal reaction time. We performed a series of four experiments to examine picture-word interference and facilitation effects in a form of covert picture naming, with and without gamification. A target picture was accompanied by an audio word distractor that was either unrelated, phonologically-related, associatively-related, or categorically-related to the picture. Participants were instructed to judge whether the name of the target picture ended in the phoneme assigned to the block by pressing corresponding keys as quickly and accurately as possible. Experiments 1 and 2 successfully replicated categorical interference and phonological facilitation effects at different optimal stimulus-onset-asynchronies (SOAs) between words and pictures. Experiment 3 demonstrated that a key gamification feature (collecting coins) motivated faster speed at the expense of accuracy in the gamified vs. experimental format of the task. Experiment 4 adopted the optimal SOAs and verified that the gamification reveals expected interference and facilitation effects despite the speed-accuracy tradeoff. These studies confirmed that categorical interference occurs earlier than phonological facilitation, while both processes are independent from articulation and inherent to word retrieval itself. The covert PWI paradigm and its gamification have methodological value for neuroimaging studies in which articulatory artifacts obscure word retrieval processes, and may be developed into potential online word-finding assessments that can reveal word retrieval difficulties with greater sensitivity.
Highlights
Object naming, a key element of everyday speech, involves rather complex word production sub-processes, such as object recognition, conceptual preparation, lexical selection, phonological encoding, and articulation (Levelt et al, 1999; Indefrey and Levelt, 2000, 2004; Levelt, 2001; Indefrey, 2011)
We examined the time course of phonological facilitation and categorical interference during picture naming and the potential independence of those effects from verbal articulation using a picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm with covert name retrieval
We observed that categorical interference requires the distractor word to interfere at an earlier timepoint of picture naming (−200 ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)) while phonological facilitation is preferably elicited with the phonological distractor priming the picture name at a later timepoint (0 ms SOA)
Summary
A key element of everyday speech, involves rather complex word production sub-processes, such as object recognition, conceptual preparation, lexical selection, phonological encoding, and articulation (Levelt et al, 1999; Indefrey and Levelt, 2000, 2004; Levelt, 2001; Indefrey, 2011). The picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm, which presents an auditory or written distractor word with the target picture to be named, has been extensively used to investigate the time course of word retrieval processes (Glaser and Düngelhoff, 1984; Schriefers et al, 1990; Starreveld and La Heij, 1995; Roelofs et al, 1996; Alario et al, 2000; Jescheniak and Schriefers, 2001; Damian and Bowers, 2003; Costa et al, 2005; Mahon et al, 2007). The discrete latencies of the phonological facilitative effect and the semantic interference effect imply that the distractors interact with the targets at different stages of the word retrieval process
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