Picture-word Task Research Articles

Dysregulation in High-Anxious Female Prisoners: Attentionally Mediated?

Psychopathy is associated with specific information processing anomalies that hamper self-regulation (e.g., poor passive avoidance) in male offenders, but recent studies have found that anxiety—rather than psychopathy—appears to predict poor passive avoidance in female offenders. To clarify the association between attention and dysregulation in anxious offenders, this study used a computerized picture–word task to test 2 competing perspectives on how anxiety moderates attention to distracting cues in female inmates. The 3-pathway model (J. P. Newman & J. F. Wallace, 1993) hypothesizes that anxious individuals (identified as neurotic introverts) will show narrowed attention to relevant task cues and thus will show less interference due to irrelevant distractors. The second perspective, derived from substantial evidence that anxious individuals are vigilant to threat cues, suggests that neurotic introverts will show vigilance to irrelevant distractors only if they are threatening. Results suggest a synthesis between the two perspectives that clarifies both the attentional mechanisms involved in anxiety and their relation to dysregulation.

Orthographic/Phonological Facilitation of Naming Responses in the Picture–Word Task: An Event-Related fMRI Study Using Overt Vocal Responding

In the picture–word interference task, naming responses are facilitated when a distractor word is orthographically and phonologically related to the depicted object as compared to an unrelated word. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the cerebral hemodynamic responses associated with this priming effect. Serial (or independent-stage) and interactive models of word production that explicitly account for picture–word interference effects assume that the locus of the effect is at the level of retrieving phonological codes, a role attributed recently to the left posterior superior temporal cortex (Wernicke's area). This assumption was tested by randomly presenting participants with trials from orthographically related and unrelated distractor conditions and acquiring image volumes coincident with the estimated peak hemodynamic response for each trial. Overt naming responses occurred in the absence of scanner noise, allowing reaction time data to be recorded. Analysis of this data confirmed the priming effect. Analysis of the fMRI data revealed blood oxygen level-dependent signal decreases in Wernicke's area and the right anterior temporal cortex, whereas signal increases were observed in the anterior cingulate, the right orbitomedial prefrontal, somatosensory, and inferior parietal cortices, and the occipital lobe. The results are interpreted as supporting the locus for the facilitation effect as assumed by both classes of theoretical model of word production. In addition, our results raise the possibilities that, counterintuitively, picture–word interference might be increased by the presentation of orthographically related distractors, due to competition introduced by activation of phonologically related word forms, and that this competition requires inhibitory processes to be resolved. The priming effect is therefore viewed as being sufficient to offset the increased interference. We conclude that information from functional imaging studies might be useful for constraining theoretical models of word production.

Semantic and phonological influences on picture naming by children and teenagers

We investigated the stages of picture naming with a new children's picture–word task. In Experiment 1, 24 normal children between 5 and 7 years named pictures while attempting to ignore auditory distractors. The relation between the onsets of the distractors and the pictures varied. Naming performance for semantic distractors showed interference when the distractor's onset was before the picture's onset. Naming performance for phonological nonsense-syllable distractors showed facilitation (congruent distractors) or interference (conflicting distractors) at all onset asymmetries. Overall results resembled findings in teenagers (Experiment 2) and previous findings in adults. The nature of linguistic knowledge and the time course of lexical access, as indexed by performance on a picture–word task, is remarkably similar in children, teenagers, and adults.

The semantic interference effect in the picture-word task: an event-related fMRI study employing overt responses

The semantic interference effect in the picture-word task: an event-related fMRI study employing overt responses

Word Substitution Errors in a Speeded Picture-Word Task

Using a speeded-naming variant of the picture-word task, we found that word substitution errors can be elicited in the laboratory. In this variant of the task, participants often responded by saying the word instead of the picture's name. Such word substitution errors are interesting because they allow the evaluation of the relative merits of two broad classes of word production models. We obtained evidence in support of interactive models of word production. In addition, the error data presented evidence that speeded naming taps a late, name retrieval process and that picture naming is semantically mediated.

The gender-congruency effect in picture-word tasks

In Dutch noun phrases like “het boek” (the book) or “de kat” (the cat), the definite article (het or de) depends on the noun's grammatical gender (neuter or non-neuter). Schriefers reported that the production of a noun phrase like “het rode bed” (“the red bed”) in response to a colored picture takes less time when the picture is accompanied by a distractor word of congruent gender (e.g., “huis,” a het-word) than when it is accompanied by a word of incongruent gender (e.g., “hand,” a de-word). In three experiments we explored the characteristics of this gender-congruency effect. The following conclusions were reached. First, the gender-congruency effect is a rather robust phenomenon. Second, with the exception of a small effect in Exp. 2, no evidence was obtained for a gender-congruency effect when subjects were required to produce a single noun in response to a picture (e.g., “bed”). Third, the gender-congruency effect decreases with a decreasing familiarity of the distractor word. Implications for models of word production are discussed.

Inhibition in picture naming and word reading.

Some previous researchers assumed that the underlying process of inhibition is similar in the modally pure target-distractor task, e.g., picture-picture task, color-color task, and in the modally mixed target-distractor task, such as the picture-word task or the color-word task, but some did not. The present purpose was to compare the inhibition in the modally pure tasks (word-word task and picture-picture task) with that in the modally mixed task (picture-word task) through the effects of the two factors, that is, response set and the semantic relation between target and distractor. These factors were assumed to affect inhibition in some kinds of interference tasks. Analysis showed the effect of response set was evident on the picture-picture task but not on the word-word and the picture-word tasks. On the picture-word task, only when the distracting word was in the same set of the target picture, was the effect of the semantic relation exhibited. The differential inhibition for the three tasks was discussed.

Inhibitory processes in young and older adults in a picture-word task

Abstract The present study examines changes in healthy young and healthy older adults in the ability to inhibit partially activated information in a picture/word interference paradigm. On each trial, subjects received a cue (i.e., the word PICTURE or WORD) indicating which of two stimuli the subject should attend to in an upcoming picture/word display. the display always contained a superimposed picture and word (e.g., a picture of a DEER with the word TEA printed on it). Following display offset, and depending upon the initial precue, either a test picture (e.g., KETTLE) or a test word (e.g., MOOSE) was presented. the subject's task was to determine as quickly and as accurately as possible whether the test stimulus was related to the cued dimension of the earlier picture/word display. the speed to reject an unrelated test item (e.g., picture of a KETTLE when the precue was PICTURE) that was related to the ignored dimension of the picture/word display (e.g., the word TEA in the picture/word display) was u...

Processing the terms “left” and “right”: The role of experiential and response factors

Abstract Three experiments were conducted to examine the role of experiential and response factors in spatial congruity judgements. A picture-word verification task was used in each case. Experiment 1 involved a comparison between native readers of Hindi and Urdu, scripts which are written and read from left-to-right and right-to-left respectively. Under Donders b (go-go) response conditions, greater polarization was observed on the horizontal axis for the Hindi subjects. There was a similar overall advantage for “right” in each group, but this masked the fact that the Hindi group had a greater advantage for “right” judgements when the right hand was used for true responses, and a greater advantage for “left” judgements when the left hand was used for true responses. Thus reading experience moderated the degree rather than the direction of polarization. Experiment 2 compared Hindi and Urdu groups of subjects using Donders c (go-no go) response rule, thereby eliminating the spatial stimulus-response compat...