Abstract
The colour-word Stroop task and the picture-word interference task (PWI) have been used extensively to study the functional processes underlying spoken word production. One of the consistent behavioural effects in both tasks is the Stroop-like effect: The reaction time (RT) is longer on incongruent trials than on congruent trials. The effect in the Stroop task is usually linked to word planning, whereas the effect in the PWI task is associated with either word planning or perceptual encoding. To adjudicate between the word planning and perceptual encoding accounts of the effect in PWI, we conducted an EEG experiment consisting of three tasks: a standard colour-word Stroop task (three colours), a standard PWI task (39 pictures), and a Stroop-like version of the PWI task (three pictures). Participants overtly named the colours and pictures while their EEG was recorded. A Stroop-like effect in RTs was observed in all three tasks. ERPs at centro-parietal sensors started to deflect negatively for incongruent relative to congruent stimuli around 350 ms after stimulus onset for the Stroop, Stroop-like PWI, and the Standard PWI tasks: an N400 effect. No early differences were found in the PWI tasks. The onset of the Stroop-like effect at about 350 ms in all three tasks links the effect to word planning rather than perceptual encoding, which has been estimated in the literature to be finished around 200–250 ms after stimulus onset. We conclude that the Stroop-like effect arises during word planning in both Stroop and PWI.
Highlights
A key component of spoken language production is the retrieval of lexical information from long-term memory so that appropriate words can be planned and articulated
We report an event-related brain potentials (ERPs) study testing a single group of participants on standard colour-word Stroop, Standard picture-word interference (PWI) (39 pictures and 39 distractor words), and Stroop-like PWI
Further analysis comparing reaction time (RT) in the Stroop and the Stroop-like PWI tasks showed an effect of condition (F(1,22) = 242.4, p < .001) and a marginally significant effect of task (F(1,22) = 4.31, p = .0497), while the interaction between task and condition (F(1,22) = 4.15, p = .054) did not reach significance
Summary
A key component of spoken language production is the retrieval of lexical information from long-term memory so that appropriate words can be planned and articulated. One of the workhorses in the study of spoken word production is the picture-word interference (PWI) task (e.g., [7,8,9,10,11]), which is often seen as an adaptation of the classic colour-word Stroop task (e.g., [12]) In these tasks, speakers name pictures or colours while trying to ignore distractor words. Findings obtained with the PWI task have been taken to provide information about the underlying word planning process, in healthy adult speakers (e.g., [2]) and in aphasic patients with production impairments as a consequence of stroke (e.g., [13]) or neurodegenerative disease (e.g., [14]). The PWI task is employed in studies of word production in developmental language impairment (e.g., [15])
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