Resolving conflict: A response to Martin and Cheng (2006)

Martin and Cheng (2006) report the results of an experiment aimed at disentangling the effects of association strength from those of competition on performance on a verb generation task. Their experiment is situated at the center of a putative debate regarding the function of the left inferior frontal gyrus in language processing (see, e.g., Wagner, Paré-Blagoev, Clark, & Poldrack, 2001). Following in this tradition, Martin and Cheng purport to contrast two processes—selection between competing representations and controlled retrieval of weak associates—that we argue can be reduced to the same mechanism. We contend that the distinction between competition and association strength is a false dichotomy, and we attempt to recast this discussion within a Bayesian framework in an attempt to guide research in this area in a more fruitful direction.