Delayed matching to two-picture samples by individuals with and without disabilities: an analysis of the role of naming

Delayed matching to complex, two-picture samples (e.g., cat-dog) may be improved when the samples occasion differential verbal behavior. In Experiment 1, individuals with mental retardation matched picture comparisons to identical single-picture samples or to two-picture samples, one of which was identical to a comparison. Accuracy scores were typically high on single-picture trials under both simultaneous and delayed matching conditions. Scores on two-picture trials were also high during the simultaneous condition but were lower during the delay condition. However, scores improved on delayed two-picture trials when each of the sample pictures was named aloud before comparison responding. Experiment 2 replicated these results with preschoolers with typical development and a youth with mental retardation. Sample naming also improved the preschoolers' matching when the samples were pairs of spoken names and the correct comparison picture matched one of the names. Collectively, the participants could produce the verbal behavior that might have improved performance, but typically did not do so unless the procedure required it. The success of the naming intervention recommends it for improving the observing and remembering of multiple elements of complex instructional stimuli.     

Masked repetition and phonological priming in picture naming

We report a series of picture naming experiments in which target pictures were primed by briefly presented masked words. Experiment 1 demonstrates that the prior presentation of the same word prime (e.g.,rose-rose) facilitates picture naming independently of the target’s name frequency. In Experiment 2, primes that were homophones of picture targets (e.g.,rows-rose) also produced facilitatory effects compared with unrelated controls, but priming was significantly larger for targets with low-frequency names relative to targets with high-frequency names. In Experiment 3, primes that were higher frequency homophones of picture targets produced facilitatory effects compared with identical primes. These results are discussed in relation to different accounts of the effects of masked priming in current models of picture naming.     

Capacity demands of phoneme selection in word production: new evidence from dual-task experiments

Three dual-task experiments investigated the capacity demands of phoneme selection in picture naming. On each trial, participants named a target picture (Task 1) and carried out a tone discrimination task (Task 2). To vary the time required for phoneme selection, the authors combined the targets with phonologically related or unrelated distractor pictures (Experiment 1) or words, which were clearly visible (Experiment 2) or masked (Experiment 3). When pictures or masked words were presented, the tone discrimination and picture naming latencies were shorter in the related condition than in the unrelated condition, which indicates that phoneme selection requires central processing capacity. However, when the distractor words were clearly visible, the facilitatory effect was confined to the picture naming latencies. This pattern arose because the visible related distractor words facilitated phoneme selection but slowed down speech monitoring processes that had to be completed before the response to the tone could be selected.     

Intentions vs. resemblance: Understanding pictures in typical development and autism

Research has debated whether children reflect on artists’ intentions when comprehending pictures, or instead derive meaning entirely from resemblance. We explore these hypotheses by comparing how typically developing toddlers and low-functioning children with autism (a population impaired in intentional reasoning) interpret abstract pictures. In Experiment 1, both groups mapped familiar object names onto abstract pictures, however, they related the same representations to different 3-D referents. Toddlers linked abstract pictures with intended referents they did not resemble, while children with autism mapped picture-referent relations based on resemblance. Experiment 2 showed that toddlers do not rely upon linguistic cues to determine intended referential relations. Experiment 3 confirmed that the responding of children with autism was not due to perseveration or associative word learning, and also provided independent evidence of their intention-reading difficulties. We argue that typically developing children derive meaning from the social-communicative intentions underlying pictures when resemblance is an inadequate cue to meaning. By contrast, children with autism do not reflect on artists’ intentions and simply relate pictures to whatever they happen to resemble.     

The cumulative semantic cost does not reflect lexical selection by competition

The cumulative semantic cost describes a phenomenon in which picture naming latencies increase monotonically with each additional within-category item that is named in a sequence of pictures. Here we test whether the cumulative semantic cost requires the assumption of lexical selection by competition. In Experiment 1 participants named a sequence of pictures, while in Experiment 2 participants named words instead of pictures, preceded by a gender marked determiner. We replicate the basic cumulative semantic cost with pictures (Exp. 1) and show that there is no cumulative semantic cost for word targets (Exp. 2). This pattern was replicated in Experiment 3 in which pictures and words were named along with their gender marked definite determiner, and were intermingled within the same experimental design. In addition, Experiment 3 showed that while picture naming induces a cumulative semantic cost for subsequently named words, word naming does not induce a cumulative semantic cost for subsequently named pictures. These findings suggest that the cumulative semantic cost arises prior to lexical selection and that the effect arises due to incremental changes to the connection weights between semantic and lexical representations.     

Effect of name agreement on prefrontal activity during overt and covert picture naming

In recent neuroimaging studies, various tasks have been used to examine prefrontal cortex involvement in semantic retrieval and selection. One such task, picture naming, has yielded inconsistent results across studies. One potential explanation for this inconsistency is that the magnitude of prefrontal activity during picture naming depends on the extent to which a given picture evokes a single reliable meaning. To test this hypothesis, fMRI activity in the prefrontal cortex was measured while subjects named pictures with either high or low name agreement. In Experiment 1, subjects named black-andwhite line drawings, either covertly or overtly. Across both modalities, we found more left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) activity when the subjects named low-agreement pictures than when they named high-agreement pictures. No significant difference in head movement was detected between the two modalities. In Experiment 2, we replicated the effect of name agreement on LIFG activity during picture naming, using black-and-white photographs. These results provide further support for the idea that the LIFG mediates selection among competing alternatives and suggest a means for understanding the naming deficits observed in nonfluent aphasia.     

Categorizing chairs and naming pears: Category differences in object processing as a function of task and priming

Four experiments are reported examining the locus of structural similarity effects in picture recognition and naming with normal subjects. Subjects carried out superordinate categorization and naming tasks with picture and word forms of clothing, furniture, fruit, and vegetable exemplars. The main findings were as follows: (1) Responses to pictures of fruit and vegetables (\ldstructurally similar\rd objects) were slowed relative to pictures of clothing and furniture (\ldstructurally dissimilar\rd objects). This structural similarity difference was greater for picture naming than for superordinate categorization of pictures. (2) Structural similarity effects in picture naming were reduced by repetition priming. Repetition priming effects were equivalent from picture and word naming as prime tasks. (3) However, superordinate categorization of the prime did not produce the structural similarity effects on priming found for picture naming. Furthermore, such priming effects did not arise for picture or word categorization or for reading picture names as target tasks. It is proposed that structural similarity effects on priming object processing are located in processes mapping semantic representations of pictures to name representations required to select names for objects. Visually based competition between fruit and vegetables produces competition in name selection, which is reduced by priming the mappings between semantic and name representations.     

The cognate facilitation effect: implications for models of lexical access

Do nonselected lexical nodes activate their phonological information? Catalan-Spanish bilinguals were asked to name (a) pictures whose names are cognates in the 2 languages (words that are phonologically similar in the 2 languages) and (b) pictures whose names are noncognates in the 2 languages. If nonselected lexical nodes are phonologically encoded, naming latencies should be shorter for cognate words, and because the cognate status of words is only meaningful for bilingual speakers, this difference should disappear when testing monolingual speakers. The results of Experiment 1 fully supported these predictions. In Experiment 2, the difference between cognate and noncognate words was larger when naming in the nondominant language than when naming in the dominant language. The results of the 2 experiments are interpreted as providing support to cascaded activation models of lexical access.     

Facilitation and interference in the color-naming task

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the phonological activation of the name of pictures when participants had to name the color in which these pictures were depicted. In Experiment 1, participants named the color of pictures whose names and color names shared the phonological beginning (phonologically related condition), the color of pictures whose names and color names did not share phonology (phonologically unrelated condition), and the color of abstract forms (neutral condition). A facilitatory effect was obtained, so participants were faster in the related condition than in the unrelated condition. However, naming latencies were similar in the neutral condition and the unrelated condition. In Experiment 2, the unrelated condition was replaced by a phonologically incongruent condition in which the name of the picture was phonologically unrelated to its color name but related to the name of other response color names. The results showed again a facilitatory effect when the related condition was compared with the incongruent condition. Importantly, an interference effect was also observed, so naming latencies were longer in the incongruent condition than in the neutral condition. These results are discussed in terms of language production models.     

汉语词汇产生中语义、语音层次之间的交互作用

采用3种方法考察汉语词汇产生中语义激活（词条选择）和音位编码这两个阶段之间的关系。实验一、二分别采用图片命名法和干扰字命名法,发现目标图片（“牛”）的语义相关词（“羊”）的语音信息得到了激活,说明汉语词汇产生中存在多重语音激活,音位编码在词条选择完成之前既已开始。实验三采用语义范畴判断法,考察语音信息的激活是否会向上反馈到词条和语义层次,发现目标图片（“羊”）的同音字（“阳”）不会促进对图片的语义判断。研究表明,多重语音激活与语音激活向词条和语义层次反馈是两个独立的,可以分割的问题。虽然实验一和二的结果符合相互作用理论,实验三的结果符合模块化观点,但就总体而言,本研究更加支持词汇产生中的模块化观点     

Integrating pictorial information across eye movements

Six experiments are reported dealing with the types of information integrated across eye movements in picture perception. A line drawing of an object was presented in peripheral vision, and subjects made an eye movement to it. During the saccade, the initially presented picture was replaced by another picture that the subject was instructed to name as quickly as possible. The relation between the stimulus on the first fixation and the stimulus on the second fixation was varied. Across the six experiments, there was about 100-130 ms facilitation when the pictures were identical compared with a control condition in which only the target location was specified on the first fixation. This finding clearly implies that information about the first picture facilitated naming the second picture. Changing the size of the picture from one fixation to the next had little effect on naming time. This result is consistent with work on reading and low-level visual processes in indicating that pictorial information is not integrated in a point-by-point manner in an integrated visual buffer. Moreover, only about 50 ms of the facilitation for identical pictures could be attributed to the pictures having the same name. When the pictures represented the same concept (e.g., two different pictures of a horse), there was a 90-ms facilitation effect that could have been the result of either the visual or conceptual similarity of the pictures. However, when the pictures had different names, only visual similarity produced facilitation. Moreover, when the pictures had different names, there appeared to be inhibition from the competing names. The results of all six experiments are consistent with a model in which the activation of both the visual features and the name of the picture seen on the first fixation survive the saccade and combine with the information extracted on the second fixation to produce identification and naming of the second picture.     

Color-object interference: Further tests of an executive control account

Young children are slower in naming the color of a meaningful picture than in naming the color of an abstract form (Stroop-like color-object interference). The current experiments tested an executive control account of this phenomenon. First, color-object interference was observed in 6- and 8-year-olds but not in 12- and 16-year-olds (Experiment 1). Second, meaningful pictures did not interfere in 5- to 7-year-olds’ manual sorting of objects on the basis of color (Experiment 2) or in their naming the number of colored objects in the display, that is, subitizing (Experiment 3). These findings provide support for the view that color-object interference results from the children’s immature inhibition of the prepotent but irrelevant task of object naming.     

汉语词汇习得的年龄效应：语义假设的证据

通过三个实验考察了词汇加工中的习得年龄效应。实验一对比了汉字命名和图片命名中词汇习得的年龄效应,发现图片命名中存在着较大的词汇习得的年龄效应,汉字命名中没有出现这种效应。实验二和实验三分别采用语义范畴判断任务和图片语义分类任务,两个实验均发现了词汇习得的年龄效应。实验结果说明,词汇习得的年龄效应至少部分来源于语义加工的层次,结果支持了语义假设的观点     

Writing words from pictures: What representations are activated, and when?

In three experiments, the nature of the representations involved in written picture naming and the time course of their activation were investigated. French participants had to produce picture names while hearing distractors. In Experiment 1, distractors semantically related to the picture names yielded a semantic interference effect when a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of--150 msec, but not when a SOA of 0 msec, was used, in both spoken and written picture naming. Experiment 2 showed that the semantic interference effect was not located at the conceptual level. In Experiment 3, participants wrote down picture names while hearing semantically related, phonologically related, both semantically and phonologically related, or unrelated distractors, presented at both SOAs. A semantic interference effect was obtained with phonologically unrelated distractors but was eliminated with phonologically related distractors. Facilitatory effects of phonologically related distractors were found at both SOAs. The implications of the findings for written picture naming are discussed.     

Semantic interference in a delayed naming task: evidence for the response exclusion hypothesis

In 2 experiments participants named pictures of common objects with superimposed distractor words. In one naming condition, the pictures and words were presented simultaneously on every trial, and participants produced the target response immediately. In the other naming condition, the presentation of the picture preceded the presentation of the distractor by 1,000 ms, and participants delayed production of their naming response until distractor word presentation. Within each naming condition, the distractor words were either semantic category coordinates of the target pictures or unrelated. Orthogonal to this manipulation of semantic relatedness, the frequency of the pictures' names was manipulated. The authors observed semantic interference effects in both the immediate and delayed naming conditions but a frequency effect only in the immediate naming condition. These data indicate that semantic interference can be observed when target picture naming latencies do not reflect the bottleneck at the level of lexical selection. In the context of other findings from the picture-word interference paradigm, the authors interpret these data as supporting the view that the semantic interference effect arises at a postlexical level of processing.     

Episodic effects on picture identification: implications for theories of concept learning and theories of memory

The effects of differences in study processing on free recall of picture names and on generalization in picture identification were investigated. Experience with degraded pictures produced poorer subsequent free recall of picture names than did naming intact pictures. For the test of picture identification, pictures that were identical to a studied picture, pictures that shared a name with a studied picture (same name), and new test pictures were presented, and the amount of clarification required to identify a picture was measured. Experience with degraded pictures produced better subsequent identification of identical test pictures but poorer later identification of same-name test pictures than did naming intact pictures. The importance of these episodic effects for theories of concept learning and theories of memory is discussed. It is argued that distinctions between memory systems (e.g., episodic-semantic) must be couched in terms of a theory of concept learning and that the data are inconsistent with a simple distinction.     

Semantic component of a cross-modal Stroop-like task

Three experiments showed that the pattern of interference of single-modality Stroop tests also exists cross-modally. Distractors and targets were either pictures or auditory words. In a naming task (Experiment 1), word distractors from the same semantic category as picture targets interfered with picture naming more than did semantically unrelated distractors; the semantic category of picture distractors did not differentially affect word naming. In a categorization task (Experiment 2), this Stroop-like effect was reversed: Picture distractors from the same semantic category as word targets interfered less with word categorization than picture distractors that were semantically unrelated; the semantic category of word distractors did not differentially affect picture categorization. Experiment 3 replicated these effects when each subject performed both tasks; the task, naming or categorizing, determined the pattern of interference between pictures and auditory words. The results thus support the existence of a semantic component of a cross-modal Stroop-like effect.     

A funny thing happened on the way to articulation: N400 attenuation despite behavioral interference in picture naming

We measured Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and naming times to picture targets preceded by masked words (stimulus onset asynchrony: 80 ms) that shared one of three different types of relationship with the names of the pictures: (1) Identity related, in which the prime was the name of the picture ("socks" - ), (2) Phonemic Onset related, in which the initial segment of the prime was the same as the name of the picture ("log" - ), and (3) Semantically related in which the prime was a co-category exemplar and associated with the name of the picture ("cake" - ). Each type of related picture target was contrasted with an Unrelated picture target, resulting in a 3×2 design that crossed Relationship Type between the word and the target picture (Identity, Phonemic Onset and Semantic) with Relatedness (Related and Unrelated). Modulation of the N400 component to related (versus unrelated) pictures was taken to reflect semantic processing at the interface between the picture's conceptual features and its lemma, while naming times reflected the end product of all stages of processing. Both attenuation of the N400 and shorter naming times were observed to pictures preceded by Identity related (versus Unrelated) words. No ERP effects within 600 ms, but shorter naming times, were observed to pictures preceded by Phonemic Onset related (versus Unrelated) words. An attenuated N400 (electrophysiological semantic priming) but longer naming times (behavioral semantic interference) were observed to pictures preceded by Semantically related (versus Unrelated) words. These dissociations between ERP modulation and naming times suggest that (a) phonemic onset priming occurred late, during encoding of the articulatory response, and (b) semantic behavioral interference was not driven by competition at the lemma level of representation, but rather occurred at a later stage of production.     

Cognitive components of naming in children: effects of referential uncertainty and stimulus realism.

The ease of picture naming in children was assessed as a function of two stimulus characteristics: (a) the number of available correct names for a picture (referential uncertainty) and (b) the degree to which a picture realistically represents the depicted object (stimulus realism). Two experiments employing different methods demonstrated that: (a) children named low uncertainty objects (those with a single dominant name, e.g., key, elephant) faster than high uncertainty objects (those with multiple possible correct names, e.g., lamp/light, stove/oven) and (b) this uncertainty effect arose at a stage of naming subsequent to object identification. Possible underlying mechanisms for the uncertainty effect include passive diffusion of activation over multiple object-name pathways or active inhibition among competing candidate names. Stimulus realism (colored photographs vs uncolored line drawings) did not consistently influence naming performance. Implications for understanding children's naming behavior are discussed.     

影响动作图片命名的因素

图片是研究词汇习得与加工的重要材料, 而名词和动词是最主要的两类实词。然而, 目前较少有研究考察汉语中的动词加工过程, 也没有标准化的动词图片库。本研究通过成人图片命名和评定任务, 获得了265张动词图片的中文名称、命名反应时, 以及H值、命名一致性、熟悉性、视觉复杂性、表象一致性和口语习得年龄等指标, 同时也探索了影响动作图片命名反应时的因素。逐步回归分析结果发现, H值、熟悉性和视觉复杂性这三个变量可解释动词图片命名反应时72.4%的变异。此外, 本研究根据图片命名反应时将动词图片加工难度分成了五个等级。研究发现, 与名词图片相比, 动词图片的视觉复杂性更高、命名一致性更低、命名反应时更长。本研究获得的各项心理语言学指标有望为后续关于动词加工的实验研究提供重要的参考资料。