The role of phonetic and orthographic similarity in picture–word interference.

Abstract

Picture-word interference refers to the fact that when a picture (i.e., line drawing) is presented with a word superimposed, picture-naming latency is longer than when the same picture is presented alone. This phe- nomenon, like the Stroop phenomenon, seems to be strongly influenced by the nature of the superimposed word. In the present paper the effects of phonetic and orthographic similarity between the word and the picture's name were investigated in order to get a clearer idea of the role these fac- tors play in the picture-naming process. Both orthographic and phonetic similarity were found to facilitate picture naming in comparison to an un- related word condition although not with respect to a picture alone condi- tion. Further, the data suggest that this facilitation is not an output phe- nomenon and, as such, can be separated from the response competition processes that lead to the basic interference effect. Instead, the locus of these effects appears to be the name-retrieval process with orthographic and phonetic information from the word aiding in the search for the picture's name. RESUME L'interference mot-image se rapporte au fait que lorsqu'une image (i.e., un dessin) est presentee avec un mot en surimpression, la latence d'i- dentification de I'image est plus longue que lorsque la meme image est presentee seule. Ce phenomene, comme celui de Stroop, semble etre for- tement influence par la nature du mot en surimpression. Les effets dus a la similitude phonetique et orthographiqu e existant entre le mot et le nom de I'image ont ete etudies dans le but de clarifier le role joue par ces facteurs dans le processus d'identification de I'image. Les similitudes orthogra- phiques et phonetiques facilitent toutes deux ('identification de I'image comparativement a la condition ou un mot non relie est utilise mais non par rapport a la situation ou I'image seule doit etre identifiee. De plus, les donnees suggerent que cette facilitation n'est pas liee a la sortie de I'infor- mation et peut, en ce sens, etre dissociee des processus de competition de la reponse qui conduisent a I'effet d'interference. Les effets trouves resi- deraient plutot dans le processus de recouvrement du mot dont la simili- tude orthographique et phonetique favorise la recherche du nom de I'image.