Semantic Effects in Speech Production

The paper reports empirical and computational research on semantic facilitation and inhibition in the picture-word interference paradigm for different values of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The main claim it makes is that purely semantic facilitation effects are conditioned by the degree of picture-word semantic similarity in contrast to inhibition effects for which categorical relatedness is typically sufficient. The experimental results support this claim and a simulation with an attractor neural network attempts to provide a unified account of semantic facilitation and inhibition in this paradigm as a function of SOA.