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Trevor B lackfo rd1,
than Grai nger
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H olcomb,
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Dep artment of Psychology, Tufts U ni versity;
Dep ar
Psychia try an d M GH/M IT/HMS Athinoula A. M artin os Cen
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Abstract T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 2
We measured ev ent -r elated potentials (ER P s) and nami ng ti mes to pi cture t ar gets pre ced
ed b y mask ed
words (sti mul us onset asyn ch ron y: 80 m s) that shared one o f thre e diffe ren t t ypes of
relations hip wit h
the names of the pictur es : (1) Identi t y relat ed, in which the prime was th e name of the pictur e
<picture of so cks >), (2) P honemi c Onset related, in which the ini ti al segm ent of the prime w
as the same
- <pictur e of a l e af>), and (3) Sem anti call y r elated in which the p ri me
was a co -- <pictur e of a p ie >).
Each t ype of R el ated pict ure tar get was contr asted with an Unrelated pi cture target , result
in g in a 3x 2
design that c rossed Relat ionsh ip T ype betw een th e word and th e tar get pi ct ure ( Id enti t
y, S emantic a nd
P honemi c Onset related ) with R elatedness (Relate d and Unrelat ed). Modul ati on of the
N400 compo nent
to related (v ersus unrel ated) pictures w as taken to refle ct semanti c proc essi ng at t he int e rfa
ce bet we en
all
stages o f proc essi ng. Bot h a tt enuati on of the N400 and shorter n ami ng ti me s were obs
erved to pi ctur es
p reced ed b y Id enti t y r ela ted (versus Un related ) w ords . No ER P effe cts withi n 60 0ms,
but sh orter
nami ng ti mes , we re obse rved to pi ctures pr ec ede d b y P honemi c Ons et relat ed (versus
Un relat ed) wo rds.
An att enuated N400 (ele ctroph ysiol o gic al semant ic prim ing) but lon ger n a mi ng ti mes
(behavior al
semantic interfe renc e) w ere obse rved to pi ctur es prece d ed b y S emanticall y r elated (v
ersus Unr elat ed)
words . Thes e diss ociatio ns between ERP modul ati on and nami ng ti mes su ggest t hat (a) P
honemi c Onset
prim ing occu rred l ate, du ring en codin g of the artic ulator y response , and (b) s emantic
behavior al
int erfer ence was not driv en b y competit ion at the lemm a level of r epres enta ti on, but rather
occu rred at a
later sta ge of p roducti on.
Keyw ord s: semantic inte rfer ence, l ex ical selecti on, response sele cti on , spe ech producti
on , ERP , N4 00
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 3
A funn y thi ng h appened on the wa y to arti culation :
N400 att enuati on despit e behavioral int er fer ence i n picture nami n g
Luckil y, f rom the mome nt an onlooker sees a ca r , the y are able to identif y it and name it i n
less than a
second. To get f ro m a M erced es bar reli n g down t owards a h apless pedestri an and the utter
ance o f th e
it s int erconnected amoda l word -, we must access i ts pho nologi cal
word to prepar e the approp riat e articulator y gestures ( Levelt , Roelofs, & M e yer, 1999;_~ ll , S
chwartz ,
Marti n, S affra n, & Ga gn on, 1997)1. It i s st il l uncle ar, howev er, wh en ea ch t yp e o f
rep resent ati on is
acti vated and ho w acti vit y at on e level a ffe cts ot her levels durin g spe ech p roducti on. This
s tud y use d a
cross -r epres entational masked primi ng p aradi gm in combination wit h both electroph ysiol o
gical and
behavioral m e asu res to a ddress t hese questi ons.
One widel y a ccept ed model of spee ch produc ti on ar gues that pro cessi n g is l argel y
serial and
feed - forw ard ( Le velt et a l., 1999; R oelofs, 2004). Accordin g to t his ac coun t, conceptual
in form ati on
int eracts ver y closel y wit h an amodal word -level r epresent ati on, which serv es as a li nk
betwe en
conceptual and form info rmati on the lemm a. Im portantl y, a cco rding to Levelt , onl y on e
lemma is
selected to adv ance to ph onological encodin g, wit hout i nterferen ce o f acti v it y from non -s
elected
1 Bot h
lemma a nd whol e -bet ween se manti cs and phonemes . Not all pr oduct ion model s, however ,
acknowl edge bot h thes e l evels of r epres ent at ion. Levelt et al . ( 1999) and Dell , Sch war t z, Ma
rt in, Saf f ran, & Gagnon ( 1997) disc uss t he l emma l evel , whil e Car amazza ( 1997) ref er s t o a
modali t y -spe ci fi c phonol ogi cal wor d -f orm or l exe me r epres ent at i on ( se e al so St ar revel d
& La Heij , 1996) . In t his s tudy, we f i nd i t usef ul t o r efer t o bot h l emma a nd phonol ogi cal wor
d - f or m r epres ent at i ons when i nter pr eti ng our f i ndi ngs in r elati on t o pr evi ous st udi es ( cf
Fi gur e 1, Cut ti ng & Fer reir a, 1999) , but we r ecogni ze t hat i t i s possi ble to adopt a mor e
gener i c model , wi t h t he debat e bei ng t he degr ee to whi ch a gene ri c lexi cal l evel of repres
ent at i on i s i nfl uence d by ac t i vit y at t he phonemi c l evel ( e.g. Gol dri ck & Rapp, 2002) .
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 4
but has no influence on a ccess t o phonolo gical or phonemi c repr esentation s ( Levelt et al.,
1999;_~ o elofs,
2004). This feed -forw ard model can a ccount for s everal ex perimental phen omena observ
ed in pi ctur e
nami ng studi es in which participants ar e asked to name tar get pi ct ur es pr esented in close
associ ati on
with contex t words. These contex t words either m atch the tar get pi cture at different l ev els of
repres entation (e. g. sem a nti call y, phonolo gicall y), o r are un related to t he pi cture . As
discussed b elo w,
dependin g on the t yp e of relations hip sh ared b etwe en word and pi cture, bot h facil it ati on and
int erf er ence
effe cts on nami ng ar e ob
served.2
- <picture of a
cat>), p articipants a re t yp icall y abl e to name the pi cture f aster than wh en th e contex t
word is u nrelat ed
to i t (Glaser & Dun gelho ff, 1984;_~ osins ki, Goli nkoff, & Kukish, 1975; R osins ki, 1977; S
mit h &
Magee, 1980). This beha vioral facil it ati on eff ect i s robust and is s een at a v ariet y of St im
ulus Onset
As yn chronies (S OAs ) ( B iggs & Marmur ek, 1990) , and even wh en other it e ms i ntervene
betw een the
arises throu gh c ross -rep r esentational identit y prim ing be cause o f close li nk s between the
compreh en sion
s ystem and the p roducti o n s ystem ( Bi ggs & M arm urek, 1990;_~ onsell, Matthews, & Mi ll er,
1992).
Id enti t y cont ex t words overlap with t ar get pi cture names at m ult ipl e levels of repr
esentation: conc ep tual ,
lemma, phonologic al wo rd -form and phon emes. T his ov erlap means that a c ti vati on from t
he contex t
2 Ma ny st udi es us e
t he so -ca l l ed pict ur e -wor d i nterf er ence par adi gm i n whi ch a t o -be -na med pi ct ur e i s pr
esented at the same t i me a s t he c ontext wor d (t he di st rac tor) . Ot her studies have use d a primi
ng par adi gm i n whi ch t he t o - be -na med pi ct ur e i s pr eceded by t he context wor d (t he pr i me) .
However , si nce dist r act or wor ds c an al so appear bef or e pi ct ur e sti mul i in t he pi ct ure -wor d
i nt er f er ence par adi gm ( i .e., a negati ve SOA) , t he onl y clea r di sti ncti on bet ween t he t wo
approac hes i s t hat word sti mul i ar e r emo ved be f or e pict ur e onset i n t he pri mi ng par adi gm.
G i ven t he si mi l arit y i n t he t wo paradi gms a nd t he obt ai ned r esul ts ( e.g. Al ar io, Segui , & Fer
rand, 2000) , t hey wi ll be pr esented toget her.
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 5 word primes the
pro cessi ng of the t ar get pi ctur e n ame at m ult ipl e stages of processi n g, ther eb y
facil it ati ng it s producti on ( Levelt et al., 1999).
A sim il ar facil it ator y ef fe ct i s som eti mes observed when the contex t word is p
honologicall y
-<pictu re of a ca t>) (F err and, Gr ain ger, & S egui, 1994; Lupker, 19 82;_
S chriefers, M e yer, & Le velt , 1990). The de gr ee o f facil it a ti on, howev er, d epends on t he
ex tent and t ype
of phonologic al overlap between the word and th e picture ( Fe rrand et al., 1994;_~err and, S e
gui, &
Grain ger, 1996 ). Relative to control conditi ons (such as unrel ated words, no nsense strings,
and audib le
noise), facil it ati on is usuall y se en when the re is o verlap betw een the conte x t word (visual or
audit ory)
and tar get pi ctu r e, eit her in t he onset phoneme or b - <pictu re of a b a gel> ) or the fin a l
ke r- <pict ure of an an chor >) (Schill er, 200 8 ;_~ chriefe rs et al ., 1990). Overlappin g final
d - <picture o f a swo rd >) (S chil ler, 2004 ). Th e
facil it ati on of picture n a mi ng b y contex t words w it h overlapping phon emi c onsets i s
termed the On set
P rimi ng eff ect. It i s reli a bl y seen when the contex t word is m asked, wher e it has been t
ermed th e
Masked Onset P rimi ng E ffect or M OPE. This eff e ct i s also observed wh en targets ar e
words and no n words (Fo rster & Davis, 1991;_~err and et al., 199 6). Fa cil it ati on on words is not observed,
howev er ,
when the task i s lex ical decisi on rather th an articul ati on (Fe rrand et al., 199 6;_~ ainger & Fer
rand,
1996). Thus, the MOP E is usuall y ex plained b y po sit ing that overlap b etwe en the phon
emi c se gment of
the prim e and the n am e o f the tar get o ccur at a rel a ti vel y late sta ge of pr epar ati on of an
articul ator y
response (G rain ge r & Fe rrand, 1996;_~ Kin hit a, 2 000;_~ chil ler, 2008), afte r acc ess t o the
conc eptual ,
lemma or phonologic al word -form repr esentatio ns of the tar get.
In con trast t o the f acil it ati on effe cts described abo ve, the pres ence o f a cont ex t
word which is
semanticall y related (ver sus unrelated) to t he ta r get pi cture c an, at l east un der some cir
cumst ances, lead
to l onger n ami ng ti mes t o that target a phenom e non known as the picture -word semanti c
int e rfe re nce
effe ct ( Lupke r, 1979;_~ osins ki, 1977). S emantic interfer enc e is observed when a wo rd is
presented
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 6 sim ult aneo usl y
with t he tar get pi ctur e (0 ms S OA) as well as when it is pres e nted imm ediatel y b efor e
(> -160 ms S OA), or im m ediatel y afte r (+200 ms S OA) the tar get ( Bloem, v an den Boo gaa
rd, & La Heij ,
2004;_~ ahon, C osta, P eterson, Va r gas, & C aram a z z a, 2007). It can also be seen, under
som e
circumst anc es, when the contex t word disappears with t he onset of the pict ure, i.e. in a prim
in g
paradi gm ( Ala rio, S egui , & F err and, 2000).
picture-word s emantic in terfer enc e ef fect arises b ecause o f competit ion at a stage of wo rd
-lev el
semantic proc essi ng, i.e. at t he int erfa ce betw e en t he conc eptual and lemma levels of rep
resentation,
which are closel y conn ec ted through bidi r ecti onal spreadin g a cti vati on. The lemma of a
con ceptuall y
related wo rd wil l rec eive acti vati on not onl y f rom it s own presentation but a lso from t he
conceptu al
repres entation of the pict ure . This additi onal acti v ati on will slow down target l emm a selecti
on be cau se
of lateral i nhibi ti on among co acti ve lemmas (e. g. C utt ing & F err eira, 1999 ) or bec ause of a
choic e -r ati o
selecti on threshol d (Roel ofs, 2004). Afte r this, processi ng is s e rial i n nature : phonol ogical
en codin g onl y proceeds on ce suc h com peti ng a cti vati on of lem mas is resolved ( Lev elt
e t al., 1999;_~ oelofs, 2004). It i s now app ar ent , howe ver, that the semantic int erfe renc e
e ffe ct does no t occur unde r all
cir cumst anc es. This pose s some chall en ges to t he idea that selecti on oc curs at t he int
erfa ce betw een the
conceptual and lemma le vels of repr esentation, an d indeed to s erial m odels of speech p
roducti on. Fi rst,
the protot ypic al semanti c int erfer ence eff ect i s s ee n when the contex t word shares a cate
go rical
relations h - <pi cture of a pea r >) ( La H ei j, Dirkx , & Kramer, 1990 ).
<pictu re of a pe ar> ), no int erfer enc e is s een at an S OA of 0ms (alt hough it is s een when
the wo rd is
presented v er y quickl y a f terwards at an S OA of + 75ms ( La Heij et al., 199 0;_~ s Alario
et al., 2000, for
a sim il ar dissociation between e ffe cts t o purel y c a tegor - <tr ain>, and
- <pi cture of a bird>, usin g a prim ing par adi gm).
Additi onall y, others hav e observed a facil it ati on , r ather than inter fer ence, o f nami ng ti
mes to pi cture s of
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 7 o bjects
presented with words t hat t hat denote part s of such object s - <pictu re of a ca r>
(Cost a et al., 2005). Thes e observati on s a re ha rd to ex plain through selecti on b y comp eti
ti on at t he
lemma level . These t ypes of associati ons occup y a sim il ar semantic space a nd would
presumabl y act in a
competit ive fashion , sim il ar to co -c ate gor y ex empl ars, durin g l emm a sele cti on.
S econd, if the s emantic i nterfer enc e ef fect w as du e to selecti on at t he lem ma level ,
then the
strength o f the semanti c r elations hip between the c ontex t word and the tar ge t shou ld affect
namin g ti mes
proportionatel y, with clo ser semantic r elations hips result ing in m ore int er f erenc e, leadin g to
l on ge r
nami ng laten cies. How ev er the opposi te has be en observed: close r semanti c relations hips
betwe en
contex t words and tar get s result in sh orter nami n g ti mes to t he target (Mah on et al., 2007).
Third, selecti on b y comp eti ti on at t he lemma level would predict that high f requenc y
competit ors
would int erfer e more tha n low frequen c y com peti tors, as the resti n g acti vat ion of words i s
related to
their frequ enc y. In fact, t he opposi te has been obs erved: the nami n g ti mes to pictures pres
ented wit h low
frequen c y contex t words are longer than to pictur e s presented wit h hi gh fr e quenc y contex t
w ords
(Mioz z o & C aramaz z a, 2003).
Finall y, if s electi on oc cur red b y competit ion at the lemma level, t he semant ic
interfer enc e ef fect
shoul d st il l occur under sublim inal masked primi ng condit ions. How ever, a stud y b y Finkb
einer and
C aramaz z a (2006) showe d that a subl im inal masking pro cedur e a ctuall y rev ersed the
dir ecti on of t he
semantic interfe renc e e ff ect. In that stud y, the pri me word appe ar ed for 53 ms , im mediatel y
foll owe d b y
a backw ard mask, whi ch was superim posed on the target pi cture. R ath er tha n observing an
int erf eren ce
effe ct on s emanticall y r elated versus unr elated ta r get pi ctur es, the investi ga tors reported a
fa cil it ati on
(prim ing) eff ect.
These t ypes of obs ervati ons have led to proposals that picture -word int e rfe rence is
driv en b y
competit ion from semanticall y r elated dist ra ctors arising at a sta ge p ast t he lemma selecti
on. One
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 8 possi bil it y is t
hat i t occur s at the level of sele cti ng whole -word phonolo gic a l represent ati ons
(S tarreveld & La Heij , 1 996). Another is that it occurs sti ll later durin g the selecti on of the
a rticulat or y
response
h ypothesis b y Mahon et al. (2007), and d raws an a logies to t he mech anism of interf e renc
e seen in t h e
classic St roop paradi gm ( Lupke r, 1979;_~ osner & S n yder, 1975;_~ osins ki, 1977; S troop,
1935), in which
int erfer ence is s e en when a highl y salient di mensi on of a sti mul us i s automati call y p
rocess ed but t his
conflicts or competes with a sec ond dim ension tha t i s rel evant t o the requir ed response. Acco
rding t o the
response ex clusi on h ypot hesis , the semantic interf erenc e e ffe ct occu rs bec a use an articul
ator y respo nse
is autom ati call y pr epar ed on the basis of informati on ex tracted from contex t ( dist ractor)
wo rds, and
these alt ern ati ve respons es mus t be removed be fo re the app ropriate ta r get - driven
response can b e
gen erat ed. Most im portantl y, ac cordin g to t his h ypothesis, i t i s harder to e x clude
semanticall y r elat ed
dist ractors than unrel ated dist r actors as pot enti al r esponses for the pi cture t ar get.
If the picture -word int e rf erenc e e ffe ct can b e att ri buted to competit ion t hat occurs
past the sta ge
of lemma selecti on, i.e. p ast t he stage of wo rd -lev el semanti c proc essi ng, t his i mpl ies that
t here is no
principled dist inction between a cross -modal wo r d -picture seman ti c p rimi ng pa radi gm, and
a pi cture word semantic inter fer en ce par adi gm . W hether a semanticall y related cont ex t word will
facil it ate or
int erfer e with picture n a mi ng will depend on the t ype of s emantic r elations hip between
the cont ex t word
and the picture ta r get, an d the precise combi nati on of ex perimental param eters. At a short S
OA, a
semanticall y related wor d prime will autom ati call y f acil it ate word -level se mantic processi n
g of a ta rget
pi cture. Howe ver, su ch f acil it ati on will be outweighed b y competit ion at later sta ge s of p
roducti on , and
the end result is i nterfe re nce on nami n g ti mes. A
share a cate go rical r elations hip wit h a target pi ctu re poses no comp eti ti on at l ate stages of
produ cti on
and will not l ead to i nterf erenc e;_~ th er, it will faci li tate processi n g, leadin g to faster nami
n g ti mes. A
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 9 low frequen c y
semanti c a ll y relat ed competit or wo rd might l ead to i nter fer e nce on nami n g ti me s at a later
sta ge of response s e lecti on (Mioz z o & C ara maz z a, 2003). Finall y, when the contex t word
is n ot avail able at all for later sta ges of pro cessi ng, whole -wo rd
semantic prim ing is l on ger outwei ghed and nami n g ti mes ar e fa cil it ated. T his i s how
Finkbeiner an d
C aramaz z a (2006) ex plained the rev ersal of rea cti on ti mes in t heir subli minal m asking
stud y: full
masking of the contex t word meant t hat i t was una vail able as a response alt ernati ve and
could not
int erfer e with response s electi on durin g arti culati on . Howeve r, its s emantic featu res st il l
automaticall y
prim ed the conc eptual an d/or lemma repr esentatio n of the tar get pi ctur e, le ading to f acil it
ati on on
nami ng ti mes.
Attribut ing the picture -w ord int erfe renc e ef fe ct t o semanti c competit ion occ urrin g p
ast t he sta ge
of lemma selecti on has th eoreti cal i mpl icati ons for models of speech p roduc ti on. As
discussed above,
the serial producti on mo del put forwar d b y Levelt and coll ea gu es is strictl y feed - forw
ard and ar gues
against int eracti vit y p ast selecti on of the lemm a: o ne lemma must be select ed befor e
proc eedin g to t he
nex t st age ( Lev elt et al., 1999;_~ oelofs, 2004). The ex perimental phenome non of semanti c
int erf ere nce
has been used to s upport the theoreti cal model: con ceptual fe atu res are us ed to
select a lemm a, but t he y do not permeate to st a ges of phonologic al encodin g or articulator y p
repa rat ion.
If , howev er, the ph enomena of pictur e -wo rd inter feren ce are b ett er a ccoun ted for b y
competit ion at a
later sta ge of p roc essi ng, then t his i mpl ies more interacti vit y and pa rall el pr ocessi ng du
rin g spee ch
producti on (Dell , S chwa r tz , Marti n, S affran, & Ga gnon, 1997;_~ Goldri & R app, 2002). The
deb ate,
however, is f ar f rom reso lved. Proponents of have ar gu ed that addit ional me chanism s,
such as self-moni torin g ma y ex plain the semantic -dist ance and frequ enc y effe cts on picture
n ami ng
mentioned above (Roelof s, 2004).
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 10
potentials
Event -relat ed
One of the dif ficult ies in di sti nguishi ng betw een t hese diffe rent a ccounts a nd, more
ge ne rall y, in
int erpreti n g nami n g ti mes of pictures , is t hat naming ti mes re flect t he culm ination of mult
ipl e stages of
processi n g. This m akes it difficult t o identif y the l ocus of an y e ffe ct of a co ntex t word on
nami ng. F or
ex ampl e, the facil it ati on of nami ng ti mes to a pict ure pres ented wit h an ide nti cal contex t
word could be
due to facil it ated a cc ess t o it s conceptual fe atures, it s lemm a, it s phonol ogical word -fo rm
repr esentati on,
and/or it s phonemi c repr esentations . Indeed, as di scussed above, if th e pict ure-wo rd interfe
ren ce e ff ect
cannot be ex plained b y s electi on at t he lemma lev el during a sta ge of word -level semanti c
pro cessi n g, a
semanticall y related cont ex t word mi ght prim e a t ar get pi ctur e, fa cil it ati ng acc ess t o it s
lemm a
repres entation, but int erf ere with s ubsequ ent st age(s) of p rocessi n g.
The i nterpret ati on of picture nami n g ti me eff ects would therefo re be compl emented
b y the
addit ion of a temporall y precise method t hat can measure acti vit y durin g mul ti ple processi ng
sta ge s
prior to producti on. Eve nt -R elated P otentials (ERP s) provide such tempora l acuit y. Ele ctrical
acti vit y at
the surfac e of the s calp c an be measu red throu gho ut an ex periment and tim e locked to s
peci fic ev ents ,
such as the pr esentation of tar get pi ctur e s . Acti vit y is ave ra ged ac ross sim il ar trials ac
ross subjects, and
the tim ing, morpholog y a nd ampl it ude of the resul ti ng grand -ave ra ge wave f orm can yield
ins ights i nt o
the underl yin g n eur al pro cesses.
A long hist or y of ER P re search h as identi fied sev eral c omponents that are
associated wit h the
processi n g of both words and pictures. On e comp onent t hat is consis tentl y modul ated b y
manipulati ons
of semanti c content is the N400, a ne gati ve - going wavefo rm peakin g at app rox im atel y
400ms post sti mul us onset (Kutas & Hill yard, 1980 ). The amp li tude of the N400 is lar ge when the ta r
get st im ulus i s
presented wit hout an y co ntex t. It i s att enu ated (les s negati ve) wh en a tar get word is
prec eded b y a
congruous contex t. For e x ampl e, target wo rds pre ceded b y identic al or sem anti call y
related words s how
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 11 a small er
N400 than thos e that are p re ceded b y un related wo rds ( Benti n, McC arth y, & W ood, 1985;_
R ugg, 1985). Th e N400 t o words can also be mod ulated b y v arious lex ical factors includin g
word
frequen c y (R u gg, 1990;_ Van P ett en & Kut as, 199 0) and nei ghborhood si z e (Holcomb et
al. , 2002). Th e
att enuati on of the N400 t o a word tar get pre ceded b y a s emanticall y r elated cont ex t i s
thought t o reflect
reduced s emantic pro cess ing of that wo rd bec ause it s amodal l ex ical represe ntation i s p
re-acti v ated by
the contex t (Fede rmeier & Kutas, 2011) . Importa ntl y, N400 modulation i s not dependent on a
b eha vio ral
response. It i s, in fa ct, pos sibl e to see an att enuati o n of the N400 to words i n the presen ce
of b ehavio ral
inhi bit ion (Holcomb, Grainger, & O 'R ourke, 2002 ).
P ictures also evoke an N 400 and, li ke the N400 e voked b y words, t his i s also modul
ated b y
semantic contex t (Ba rrett & R u gg, 1990;_~ cP hers on & Holcomb, 1999). F or ex ampl e, the
N400 ev oked
b y a pi cture is att enu ated when that picture is pr ec eded b y a sem anti call y re lated picture
( Ba rrett &
R ugg, 1990;_~ cP herson & Holcomb, 1999) o r wo rd (J ohnson, P aivi o, & C lark, 1996). How
eve r, unlike
to words, t he N400 to pi c tures i s som eti mes prece ded b y a sli ghtl y e arlie r f rontall y-dist
ributed
component, call ed the N 300 (Ba rrett & R ugg, 19 90;_~ cP herson & Hol co mb, 1999). This
N300 is
thought t o refl ect a ccess t o the structural semanti c featur es that ar e specific to vi sual
objects. It i s
thought t o be dist inct fro m an earli
perceptu al fe atures (Edd y et al., 2006, Edd y et al. , 2010). It can also be dist inguished from
the N40 0
it self which is usuall y int erpret ed as r eflecti n g se mantic processi n g that oc curs at the int er
fac e betw een
the conceptu al featur es a nd a more abstr act, amod al l evel of r epres entation.
Tradit ionall y, ERP s have mainl y be en used to ex ami ne mechanism s of lan gua ge compr
ehension
rather than p roducti on . T his i s because a rticulati on causes substantial noise in t he EEG sign
al, whic h can
potentiall y rend er subtle cognit ive eff ects of int er est und etectable . B ecaus e of this, earl y
ERP studi es
ex ploring producti on use d the laterali z ed re adines s pot enti al an index of response prep
arati on to
ex plore the temporal seq uence of retrievin g dif fer ent repr esentations . Thes e studi es
suggested that the
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 12 con ceptual r
epr esentation was a cc essed before it s lex i co -semanti c repr esentation, which i n
turn, was ac cessed b efor e it s phonol ogical rep rese ntation (e.g. Van Tur enn out et al.
1997, 1998;_~ chmi tt
et al. 2000;_~ odriguez - F ornell s, S chmi tt , Kutas, & Münt e, 2002). Ho wev er , bec ause ov
ert nami n g
responses we re d ela yed, and partic ipants pe rform ed quit e compl ex tasks (combi ning left
-ri ght but ton presses wit h go/no - go de cisi ons), conclusi ons abo ut t he precise tim ing o f r etrieving th ese
diff erent
repres entations in natural langu a ge produ cti on wer e li mi ted.
Another appro ach w as ta ken by J escheni ak and Fr iederici (2002) who meas ured
ERP s to
audit or y p robe wo rds tha t we re pr esented 550ms a fter the onset of a picture . P articipants
named the
picture, but onl y wh en cu ed to do s o , 1350ms after it s onset. A smaller (less negati ve)
N400, from 40 0 800 ms, was seen to prob e word s that we re sem anti call y ( cate go ricall y) r ela ted to the
tar get pi cture
compared with sem anti ca ll y unrelat ed probe word s . This was int erpreted as refle cti ng
sem anti c primi ng
lemma repres entation. Important l y, a sim il ar patt e rn and t im e course of N400 modulation was observ ed when, r ather than nam e the pictu res, parti cipants m
ad e
semantic (siz e) judgm ents about t hem. Thi s sugge sts that access t o the con ceptual and/or
lemma
repres enta ti on of a pictur e during a nami n g task , i. e. word -lev el semanti c pr ocessi ng, is
not quali tativ el y
different from ac cess t o t hese rep resent ati ons during a s emantic de cisi on task. This i s consis
tent with the
idea that these lev els, an d thi s st age of word -lev el semanti c proc essi ng, is s hared betw een
comprehension and p rod ucti on s ystems ( Lev elt et al., 1999). W hen the pro be word w
as phonol ogic all y
related to t he tar get pi ctu re (sha ring an ini ti al consonant -vowel se gment), m odulation wit
hin t he N400
ti me window was st il l seen to t he probe wo rd in the nami ng t ask. This suggested th at t he
phonologi cal
word -form that thi s facil it ated word -level
semantic proc essi ng, thro ugh f eedba ck, modul ati ng the N400. Howev er, no such
phonologic al eff ect on
the N400 was se en in t he semanti c decisi on task, s uggesti n g that pa rticipants di d not
automaticall y
acc ess t he phonologi cal c ode of the pictur e unless it was selected fo r produ cti on . This i
nterpretation was
further support ed b y a fol low -up stud y in which E R P s were measur ed to pr obe words t hat
we re
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 13 p honolo gicall
y r elated to semanti c associates o f the to -be-n amed picture (e. g. go a l which is
phonologicall y r elated to go a t , which is s em anti call y related to t he t ar get picture <she
ep>). No N4 00
modul ati on was seen to t hese probes, a gain su gge sti ng that onl y the pho nol ogic al repr
esentation of t he
name of the pictur e not those of it s lex ico-semantic associates was acti v ated ( J escheniak
et al.,
2003).
These studi es establi shed that, while a sim il ar stage of whole - word semanti c
processi n g ma y b e
shared a cross semantic p rocessi n g and n ami ng tas ks, phonol ogical wo rd-fo rm repres
entations ar e more
li kel y to be a cti vated duri ng produ cti on tasks than in purel y s emantic proc e ssi ng tasks (se
e also Vi hl a et
al., 2006 for conv er gin g evidenc e ). Howev er, b ec ause the prob e words w er e int roduced
so m uch lat er
than the onset of the pict ure, the y do not s hed li gh t on ex actl y when after pi cture onset t
hese
repres entations bec ame a vail able.
R ecentl y, s ever al i nvesti gators h ave fo und that it is i n fact poss ibl e to obt ain accur
ate wav eforms
time-locked to t ar get pi ct ures, even when pa rticipa nts are asked to ov ertl y n ame the picture
(see
Ganushchak, C hrist off els & S chil ler, 2011, for a r eview). This i s bec ause t he onset of
articul ati on
t ypicall y oc curs a fter the onset of components of i nterest. Thre e re cent ER P studi es ex
ploit ed thi s and
measured ERP s as pa rticipants named pictures that were eit her low or hi gh f requenc y: La
gan aro et al.
(2009) repo rted diver gen ce in t he wav eform b e ginni ng at a round 270 ms aft er picture ons
et, whil e
S trijkers , C osta and Thierr y ( 2009) and S trijkers , Holcomb and Cost a (201 1) showed an
even e arlie r
divergenc e betwe en 150 - 200ms (on the P2 wavefo rm). S trijkers et al. (2009 ) also report
ed a sim il ar
earl y diver genc e when S panish -C atalan bil ingu al parti cipants named pictur es that shared
o r did not
share phonolo gical f eatur es across the two l an gua ges (co gnat es versus non- cogn ates).
In another stu d y
(Cost a et al., 2009), parti cipants named pictur es fr om a set of int ermix ed semanti c cate gori
es (e. g.,
turtle, hamm er, tre e, cr o c odil e, bus, ax e, snake, etc .) and ERP s were m easur ed to pi
ctures from a given
semantic cate go r y that ap peared eit her earlier in t h e set (e. g. crocodil e ) or la ter in t he set
(e. g., sn ake) .
The ERP wavefo rms diver ged at approx im atel y 2 00ms a findi ng that w a s consis tent
with an earli er
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 14 MEG stud y b
y Ma ess et al., (2002) who r eported a sim il ar earl y e ffe ct t o pictures appe arin g withi n an
int ermix ed versus homogeneous semanti c cate gor y set.
These studi es ar e im portant i n that the y su ggest t hat, during p roducti on, a ccess t o
som e li nguist ic
information can be gin as earl y as 200m s a fter pict ure onset, per haps be caus e the intention t
o speak
produces top -down acti vit y, which facil it ates e arl y acc ess t o such rep resent ati ons (St
rijkers, Holcomb &
C osta, 2011). Howeve r, it shoul d be noted that t he focus of these studi es w as on t he ti mi ng
of the in it ial
divergenc e in t he ERP waveforms as an indi cator for when n ami ng -relev an t i nformation
first becam e
avail able durin g produ cti on . As ar gued elsewhe re (e. g., Gr ainger & Holco mb, 2009),
when int erpr e ti ng
ERP result s , one must draw a dist inction between esti mates of the onset of a giv en ef fect,
d etermi ne d b y
the fastest fe ed for ward p rocesses, and the bulk of the eff ect t hat l ikel y refl e cts t he consol
idation of
processi n g as inform ati on accru es in t he rep resent ati ons t hat are drivin g the effe ct, pl us
possi bl y the
stabil iz ati on of information transfer b etwe en diffe rent l evels o f r epres entati on (meanin g
and fo rm, f or
ex ampl e). In oth er words , evidence for a cc ess t o li nguist ic information at a r ound 200ms
pos t -picture
onset i s not incompati ble wit h the observati on that semanti c or lex ical varia bles can
modul ate the N4 00
ERP component during p roducti on tasks .
Two previous studi es spe ak directl y to how the N4 00 is modul ated to pictures during p
roducti on .
First, C haunce y, Holcomb and Grain ge r (2009) re corded ERP s while partic ipants named
pict ure ta r gets
that were p rec eded b y w ord primes (pr esented fo r 70ms foll owed b y a 50ms mask) that
corr esponde d
eit her to the name o f the picture tar get or to an unr elated picture n ame. Cl e ar modulation
was seen
withi n the 300 -500ms N400 tim e window, wit h a less negati ve N400 to pic tures prec eded b
y identit y
than non -identit y wo rds. A ver y sim il ar att enuati o n of the N400 was s een i n a second ex
periment w hen
bil ingual parti cipants na med the picture ta r get i n their second lan gu a ge (th e word prime
appea red in
th eir first l an gua ge ). The cross -lan gua ge N400 pri mi ng ef fect w as int erpr eted as re flecti
n g f acil it ati on of
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 15
phonological
-word
repres entation , since onl y non - co gnate tr anslati on equivalents wer e tested ).
In a second st ud y usin g a long-la g p rimed nami n g paradi gm, Koeste r and S chil ler
(2008)
reported a small er (less n egati ve) N400 b etween 3 50 -650ms to pi ctures that were p rec
eded b y
transparentl y morpholo gi call y related compound words, than to pictures pr eced ed b y
unrelat ed wor ds.
The same de gree o f N40 0 modul ati on was seen to pictures pre ceded b y op a quel y
morpholo gic all y
related compound wo rds . This s uggests that, rath e r than onl y refle cti ng cro ss -modal prim
ing of the
res, N400 modul ati on during produ cti on refl ecte d at l east s ome prim ing o f a
more abstra ct word -3. No ER P
modul ati on was seen to p icture tar gets prec eded b y wo rds that wer e onl y p honologi call y r
elated (v e rsus
4.
In both t hes e producti on studi es, the N400 eff ect e voked b y p rimed (ve rsus
unprimed) pictures
was si mi lar in t im ing and morpholog y to t he N400 seen to prim ed (ve rsus u nprimed)
pictures and w ords
using word compreh ension tasks . Thus, taken together, the y su ggest t hat, j ust as in
comprehension t asks,
mor phol ogi ca l r epr esentation t hat was devoi d of any semant i c inf or mat i on. In f act , many of
t he opaquel y mor phol ogi ca ll y r elated c ompound pr i mes di d share some c once pt ual r el ati
onship wi t h t he t ar get (alt hough not nea rl y t o t he same de gr ee as t he t rans parent mor phol
ogi ca l l y r el at ed pr i mes , K oest er and Schill er , personal communi ca t ion ) . Our mai n poi nt i s
t hat , gi ven t hat t he ma gni t ude of N400 ef fect was t he s ame s i ze to t ar get s pr ecede d by tr
ansparentl y mor phol ogi ca ll y r elated and opaquel y mor phol ogi cal ly r el ated compound words ( ea
ch r elati ve t o unr el ated t ar gets) , t hes e f indi ngs sugges t t hat N400 modu l at i on duri ng pi ct ur
e nami ng i s not dri ven me mor e a bstr act lexical r epres ent at ion.
4In anot her rec ent st udy usi ng t he c l assi c pi ct ure -( 2010) repor t ed a l ess negat i ve wavef or
m bet ween 250 -450 ms t o pict ur e t ar get s wi t h super i mpose d di st rac t or wor ds which were ca t
egori cal l y r el at ed versus Hir sc hf el d et al ., 2008 , who r epor ted no ef fec t t o a si mi l ar mani
3
pulati on) . T he aut hors s ugges t ed t hat t his ERP modul ati on r efl ected pr oce ssi ng at t he l exi
cal l evel pr i or to phonol ogi cal enc odi ng, alt hough t hey did not i dent if y i t as N400 pr imi ng.
A si mi l ar patt ern of ERP modul at i on was obse r ved when t he s uperi mpose d di str act or wor
ds shar ed t he f ir st t wo or thr ee phonemes wi t h t he pr ocessi ng.
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 16 the N400
evoked b y pict ures in n ami ng t asks refl ects acti vit y at t he int erf a ce betw een con ceptual
featur es and a mor e abstr act word -l evel rep resent a ti on (the lemma).
T h e Curren t St udy
The curr ent st ud y sou ght to ex ami ne the tim e-course of fa cil it ati on and int erfer
ence du rin g an
overt picture-n ami ng t as k b y me asurin g both ER P s and nami ng laten cies. W e created th
ree s ets of wordpicture pairs with Id enti ty, P honemi c On s et and Semanti c relations hips ( se e Fi gure 1 ).
In the Identi ty
pairs, the word w as the n ame of the pictur e (e. g. s ocks - <pictur e of socks > ). In the Semanti
call y r elated
pairs, the word w as bot h cate goric all y related and associated wit h the pictur e name ( e. g.
cak e - <pict ure
of a pie> ). In the Phone m ic Onset relat ed pairs, the word had the sam e ini ti al segment as th
e picture
name (e. g. lo g - <picture of a lea f >). W e comp are d each r elated wo rd -pictu re pair with an
un related pair
(e. g. wa ffle - <picture o f socks>;_~ huic ane - <pict ure of a pi e>;_ch alk - <pi cture of a leaf > ).
For e ac h
R elations hip T ype, ta r get pictures wer e counte rbal anced across two li sts (se en b y dif
fer ent parti cip an ts).
This m eant t hat, for e ach R elations hip T ype, a giv en tar get pictur e appe ar e d in t he
related condit ion in
one li st an d the unrelated condit ion i n another li st (see Methods fo r furthe r details) , and that
no
indi vidual saw the same t ar get pictur e more than o nce or in m ore th an one c ondit ion.
In all trials, t he words ap peared for 60ms and w er e foll owed b y a b ackw ar d mask o
f 20ms (S OA
80 ms) before th e tar get p icture appe ar ed . This co mbi nati on of S OA and mask durati on
ensur ed that
processi n g of the wo rd s was not compl etel y subl im inal (we pres ented 10 word -picture
pairs, usi n g the
same par ameters, to all p articipants afte r the stud y, as well as to 1 1 particip ants who did
not t ake par t i n
the stud y, and asked the m t o name the word : on a vera ge, 7 /10 wer e cor rect l y named ).
This m eant t h at
the repr esentation of the word was st il l li kel y to h ave be en avail able du rin g the r esponse sta
ge of n ami ng
the picture. On the othe r hand, the short S OA, with s ome masking of the c ontex t word, ensured
that an y
prim ing ef fect o f the wor d on pro cessi n g of the pi cture would r eflect autom ati c acti vit y r
ather than
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 17 controll ed
post -lex ical st rate gies . The use o f a shor t m ask also ensured that t he words we re all
processed to the s ame de gr ee, avoidi n g potential p roblems of non -uniform masking b y diff
erent pi ct ures
with di fferent ph ysic al pr operties. Unlike classic al picture-word int e rfe ren c e studi es, the
contex t word
disappear ed with t he onset of the tar get pi cture. T his was im portant t o ensure that ERP s
were me asu red
to an identi cal st im ulus across the rel ated and unr e lated condit ions (otherwi se an y modul ati
on in ER P s
could be att ributed to l ow -level di ff eren ces a cros s these condit ions).
W e made the foll owing p redictions re ga rdin g the patt ern of ERP modul ati on and
picture nami n g
latencies. Fi rst, we ex pec ted that N400 ampl it ude would be att enuated and nami ng ti mes
would be
shorter to picture ta r get s preced ed b y words t h at were identic al (ve rsus unrelated)
This would repli cate pr e vious findi ngs of beh avioral (Ros inski et al., 1975) and ERP (C
haunce y et a l.,
2009) identit y primi n g d uring pictur e nami n g, an d would indi cate fa cil i tation b y ove
rlapping acti va ti on
from t he prime word at mul ti ple levels of repres e ntation conceptual, lem ma and phonologi
cal .
S econd, based on pr evio usl y repo rted beh avioral findings (Schill er, 2004;_ S chil ler,
2008), we
predicted that pictur es pr eced ed b y prime words with t he same phonemi c onset as the tar get
pi ctu re
names would be named f aster than tar get pi ctures preced ed b y un r elated w ords . It was som
ewh at unclear
whether or when w e wou ld see a si gnature o f such facil it ated proc essi n g in t he ERP
waveform. If we
observed an y ERP modulati on on the N400 compo nent, t his woul d suggest feedba ck from t
he acti vat ed
phonemi c repr esentat ion s of the tar get pi ctur e to a cti vit y at t he con ceptual/l emm a int erfa
ce ( Dell ,
S chwartz , Marti n, S affr a n, & Ga gnon, 1997 ). Oth erwise, an y b ehavior al ef fects woul d be
att ributable to
prim ing occu rrin g at a l ater sta ge of p rep arati on of the articulator y r esponse (Grain ge r
& F err and, 19 96;_
Kinoshi ta, 2000;_~ chil ler, 2008 ).
Of most int erest was the patt ern of ERP s and nam ing ti mes to t he picture ta rgets
prec eded b y
semanticall y related wor ds. As noted above, our S OA of 80ms between w ord and picture is w
ell wi thi n
the ran ge at which beh av ioral semanti c int erf eren c e has been p revious l y rep orted (Blo
em, van den
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 18 Boo gaa rd, &
La H eij , 2004;_~ ahon, C osta, P eterson, Var gas, & C ar amaz z a, 2007). Importantl y, as
discussed above, the 20m s backwa rd mask di d not eli mi nate awar eness of th e word or
reduc e it s
avail abil it y as a respons e alt ernati ve durin g sel ecti on, dis ti nguishi ng our p a rameters
from t hose used b y
Finkbeiner and Caram az z a (2006) who used a 53 ms S OA with complete masking of the pi
cture, a nd
who observed facil it a ti on on nami ng ti mes. W e therefo re ex pected to s ee a semantic
interfe renc e e ff ect
on nami ng ti mes, i.e. we ex pected nami ng ti mes o f picture tar gets pre ceded b y sema nti
call y related
word s to b e longer than t hose prec eded b y s emanticall y unr elated wo rds .
The questi on we ask ed w as whether thi s beh aviora l pattern of interf eren ce would patt
ern with or
diss ociate from t he modu lation of the N400. This woul d help i denti f y the l ocus of the beh
avioral
semantic interfe renc e e ff ect. As di scussed abov e, we take the N400 to be a n index of neural
acti vati on at
the interfa ce betw een the conceptual and lemma le vels of repr esentation , oc currin g at a
sta ge of wo r d level semanti c pro cessi n g that is shar ed betwe en comprehension and p rod ucti on s
ystems. If the p at tern
of N400 modulation m irrored the patt e rn of beh av ioral i nterfe renc e, with a larger (mo re ne
gati ve) N 400
to t arget pi ctures pr e ce de d b y sem ant icall y related than unrelated wo rds, this would
provide strong
evidence for sele cti on b y competit ion at t he conce ptual -lemma interfa ce, as suggested b y
Levelt et al .
(1999 ). If, on the oth er h and, the N400 to pi ctures preced ed b y semanti c al ly r elated (v
ersus unr elate d)
words was attenu ated, this would suggest t hat t he l emm a repr esentation of t he picture had
b een
autom ati call y p rimed b y the contex t word. This would, i n turn, suggest t hat an y s emantic
interf ere nc e on
nami ng ti mes occu rred p ast the lemm a sta ge of p r ocessi ng, im pl yin g fe edf orward acti
vit y f rom the
semantic to later sta ges o f processi n g durin g prod ucti on (Goldrick & R app , 2002;_~ ll , S
chwartz ,
Marti n, S affra n, & Ga gn on, 1997;_~ aramaz z a, 1997).
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 19
Method s
Design an d S timu li
A set o f 330 color im a ge s was taken f rom the He mera P hoto Objects data base (H
emera
Technolo gies Inc., 2002 ) . These im a ges included depictions of household i tems, anim als,
food it ems,
and other e asil y r eco gniz able objects. Al l pi ctures were cropped and resiz ed to fit a 256 x
256 pix el
im age with a whit e ba ck ground. In orde r to deter mi ne which of these pict ures we re given c
onsi stent
names, an independ ent n ormi ng stud y was car ried out in which a group of 24 under gradu ate
pa rticipants
were asked to i denti f y th e pictures with a sin gle n ame. Two-hund red - and-s event y
pictures, whi ch w ere
consi stentl y named b y at least 70% of pa rticipants , were s elected as tar gets.
Each im a ge in t his s et of 2 70 pictures was p aired with a contex t word (alw a ys a
noun) to
const ruct word -pi cture p airs that had one of th ree t ypes of relations hip : Ide nti t y related, S
em anti call y
related and P honemi c On set related. Nin et y relate d pairs wer e const ru cted for ea ch rel at
ionsh ip. An
ex ampl e of each t ype o f r elations hip i s given in Fi gur e 1, and the full set of related pai rs
can b e foun d at
htt p:/ /www.nmr.mgh.har vard.edu/kupe rber glab/m aterials.ht m .
Id enti t y r elated pai rs con sis ted of a contex t word that corr esp onded to t he n ame of
the pictur e,
e.g. so cks - <pi cture of s ocks >. S emanticall y r elated pairs consi sted of contex t words and tar
get pi ct ures
that were both asso ciated and co -c ate gor y ex empl ars (V an Overs chelde, R awson, &
Dunlosk y, 200 4) ,
e.g. cak e - <pictu re of a p ie>. Association was d ete rmined b y s electi n g cont ex t words t
hat elicited the
name of the ta r get pi ctur e during fre e asso ciation, as index ed usi ng the Flo rida Fr ee Asso
ciation No rms
database (Nelson, McEv o y, & S chr eiber, 2004). P rime words wer e at l eas t t he thi rd most
common
associate of the t ar get wo rd, with a mean asso ciation value of 0.17. In addit ion, a Latent S
emantic
Anal ysis ( LS A ) ( Land au er & Dumais, 19 97) w as used to confirm semantic relatedness b
etween p ri mes
and tar get wo rd. W e obta ined pairwise comp ar iso n values for primes and tar gets us in g the
LS A dat abase
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 20 avail able at w
ww.lsa.col orado.edu . All s emantic a ll y relat ed word -pi cture p airs had a mi nim um
correl ati on value of 0.10 (M = 0.422, S D = 0.193).
The P honemi c Onset rel a ted pairs consi sted of con tex t words t hat had the same ini ti
al
phonological se gm ent as the tar get pi cture name, b u t not the same init ial s yl lable (e. g. lo g
- <picture of a
leaf> ). If the n ame of the picture be gan with a con sonant -consonant compo und before it s ini
ti al vowel, a
contex t word with t he same compound was sele ct ed ( e. g. spa rrow - <pictur e of a spi der >). If
the na me of
the tar get be gan with a v owel, t hen a cont ex t word beginni n g with a vow el of the same
phonolo g y was
used (e. g. or chid - <pictu re of an o ran ge >). S ix teen out of the 90 Phonemic Onset related
word -pictu re
pairs had overl ap on the f irst vowel, but thi s overlap was ortho g raphi c onl y not phonol
ogical ( e. g.
canoe - <pictur e of a cat >), as ve rified usin g nor ms from t he Engli sh Lex icon Project
htt p:/ /elexicon.wustl .edu/ . All prim es were concr et e words.
For e ach Relationshi p T ype ( Identi t y rel ated, Sem anti call y related a nd P honemi c
Onset rel ated),
Unrelated p airs we re c re ated b y pseudor andoml y pairing the pi cture ta r get s with word
from anothe r
target pi cture. This r esult ed in a 3x 2 design that cr ossed Relations hip T ype between the
contex t word
and the tar get pi ctu re ( Id enti t y, S emantic an d P ho nemi c Onset) b y R elated ness (Related
and Unrela ted).
There w as no si gni ficant differen ce in lo g fr equen c y (F(2, 178) = 1.558, p > 0.217), number o
f lett e rs
(F(2, 178 ) = .582, p > 0.5 50), number of phon eme s (F( 2, 178) = 0.182, p > 0.830), or number
of
s yll ables ( F(2, 178 ) = 0.8 48, p > 0.424) of the n ames of tar get pi ctu res a cro s s the three R
elations hip
T ypes (see Fi gur e 1;_~ vals taken from En gli sh Le x icon Project htt p://elex icon.wustl .edu/ ).
The pict ures
were also m atched across the three R elations hip T yp es on fami li arit y (valu es taken from t
he MR C
Database and av ail able f or 66% of the ta r gets us e d, F(2, 176) = 1.252, p > 0 .287).
These word -picture s ets were then ps eudo -r ando ml y counterb ala nc ed , wit hin R
elations hip T yp e,
across two ex perimental li sts (to be seen b y dif fer ent parti cipants). For ex a mpl e, refe rrin g
to Fi gur e 1, a
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 21
cks> mi ght be prec eded b y the denti t y related) but b y the word
<picture of so
st 2 (Unrelat ed). The <picture o f a pie > mi ght app ear w
(S ist 1 (Unrelated). And the <picture o f a le af> mi ght
appear n set related) bu n rela ted)
in l ist 2. Thus , each li st consti tut ed 270 word -picture pairs: 45 Id enti t y r ela ted , 45 S
emanticall y relat ed,
45 P honemi c Onset relat ed and 135 U nr elated pai rs. This m eant t hat no in divi dual saw
the same tar get
more t han once, but acro ss all parti cipants, t he sa me tar get pi cture for a gi ven Relationshi p
T ype w as
seen in bot h the relat ed c ondit ion and the unrelate d condit ion.
E RP E xp eri men t
Parti cipant s
Twent y- one Tu fts st udents (age 18 - 27;_~ 8 ales) i nit iall y p articipated. Indivi duals wi th h
ist ories
of ps yc hiatric or n eurolo gic al di sorders, who h ad learned lan gu a ges ot he r than Engli sh be
fore a ge 5, or
who wer e left -han ded a c cording to t he modi fi ed Edinburgh h anded ness i n ventor y (Oldfield,
1971) , were
ex cluded. Each pa rticipa nt gav e writ ten informed consent i n acco rdan ce wi th t he procedur
es of the
Insti tut ional R eview Boa rd of Tufts Uni versit y an d was paid for p articipati on.
Sti mulus Presentat ion and EEG recordi ng
P articipants were random l y assi gned to one o f the two li sts u sed for counter
balancin g. The y s at
in a comfortable chair in a dim l y li t room separ ate from the ex perimenter a nd comput ers.
The y w ere
given a pra cti ce block o f 10 novel i tems prior to t he ex periment. Note that, unli ke som e
previous studi es
of p icture nami n g, w e did not fami li ariz e participants wi th t he names of th e pictures used
in the
ex periment i tself. This was in o rder to avoid pot en ti al repeti ti on prim ing an d episod ic
memor y ef fect s
that can influenc e both t he N400 and the lat e posi ti vit y ER P components, a nd which could
pot enti all y
have int era cted wit h the variables of int e rest and/ or reduc ed our pow er to detect ef fe cts. Al
so
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 22 fami li ariz ati
on would have li kel y r educ ed picture nami ng laten cies inducin g a rticulati on artifa ct i nto
the ER P s at an earlier poi nt i n ti me, thus restricting the lat enc y r an ge fo r o bserving ERP
effe cts.
All words appea red in w hit e Arial font a gainst a b lack back ground on a 19 - inch CR T
moni tor ,
which was tel y 60 inch es awa y. On
each trial a fix ati on prompt appear ed for 250 200 ms,
the contex t word for 60 ms, t hen a back ward mask of random ms,
followed b y the tar get pi cture which rem ained on the scre en unti l it was named . The ti mi ng
of a t yp ical
trial is depicted in Fi gure 2. P articipants were inst r ucted to name the pictur e s as quick l y
and ac curat e l y
as poss ibl e. Their respon ses wer e re corded with i n -house softwa re that be gan reco rdi n g
as soon as t he
target pi cture appea red. A blank scre en was p rese nted between tri als for a variable inter -trial
int erv al
between 1500 and 2500 ms du ring which p articip ants could bl ink t o avoid arti fact durin g
trials.
P articipants were giv en b reaks ev er y 15 trials duri ng which th e y we re tol d the y could m
ove fr eel y.
Twent y- nine ti n ele ctrod es reco rded the electro en cephalo gr am (EEG), h el d in pl ace on
the sc alp
b y an elastic c ap (Ele ctro -C ap Intern ati onal, Eaton , OH). Electro des we re pl aced in s
tanda rd
Inte rnati onal 10 20 S yst em l ocati ons as well as 1 0 addit ional si tes sit uated prim aril y b e
tween fronta l
and centr al si tes and bet ween c entral and p arietal sit es (see Fi gu re 3). Ele c trodes wer e
also pl ac ed b elow
the left e ye and at t he out er canthus of th e ri ght e ye to m onit or vertical and horiz ontal e
ye movem ents.
The EEG si gnal was ampl ified b y an Isolated Bioe lectric Ampl ifier S ystem Model H&W -32/B
A (SA
Instrume ntation, S an Die go, CA) wit h a b andpass of 0.01 40 Hz and was c onti nuousl y s
ampl ed at 2 00
Hz b y an an alo gue -to-di git al converter.
Behavioral Data Analysis
W e ex cluded one partici pant from t he beh avioral anal ysis b ecaus e his nam ing ti me
data w ere
mi ssi ng due to t echnic al problems. For all other p articipants, we anal yz e d their median
nami n g laten cies
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 23 on corre ctl y
answe red tri als in each condit ion . Ou tl iers (responses ex ceeding two stand ard deviatio ns
abov median rea cti on ti me across all condit ions) wer e ex cluded from
anal ys es. The us e of med ian nami ng ti mes as a ce ntral t endenc y p aramet er is appropriate
in a d ataset
li ke thi s one where the ra nge in n ami ng ti mes a cro ss parti cipants was lar ge in comparison
w it h the
avera ge diff eren ces betw een condit ions i n indi vidual participants, s ee R atc li ff (1993). Nami
n g ti me data
were anal yz ed with ANO VAs. In a subj e cts anal ys is, we used median nami ng ti mes ac ross
all cor rec tl y answer ed it ems wi thi n ea ch condit ion; withi n -participant facto rs wer e R elat ionsh ip T ype
( Identi t y,
S emantic and P honemi c Onset) and wo rd -pictur e R elatedness (Related vs. U nrelated ). In
an it ems
anal ysis , w e took t he me dian nami ng ti mes to ea c h target pi cture, across th e participants
who corr ec tl y
n amed that pi cture;_ R elat ionsh ip T ype w as a betw een -it ems fa ctor and R el atedness
was a withi n -it e ms
factor .
ERP Data Analysis
ERP s were ave ra ged off- li ne at each electrod e sit e for ea ch ex perimental co ndit
ion us ing a -50 +50 ms peri-sti mul us baseli ne and lasti ng unti l 11 70ms post -picture onset. Across all
particip ants, t he
lowest value in the ran ge of median nami n g ti mes was 653m s (see Fi gure 4 B for full ran
ges in e ach
condit ion) and so, t o avoid s peech - related artifa ct, we onl y anal yz ed and sh ow ER P acti
vit y up unti l
60 0ms p ost -picture onset (in som e participants, th ere w ere som e indi vidual trials with nami
ng ti mes less
than 600 ms bu t t hese con sti tut ed less than 3% of a ll trials across all particip ants ). Trials
contaminate d
with e ye artif act (det ecte d usi ng a pola rit y inve rsion test on t he left e ye cha nnel) or ampl
ifier blo cka ge
were ex cluded from anal ys es . On e pa rticipant was ex cluded alt ogeth er fro m t he ERP
anal ysis bec a use of
a high artifa ct reje cti on rate. Across th e remaind er of t he participants, a rtifa ct contamination
from e ye
movement or ampl ifier b locking led to the r ejecti o n of 9.4% of trials and th is di d not di ffer
across
ex perimental condit ions (no main effe ct of R elatio nshi p or Relatedness and no int eracti on
betwe en th ese
two factors, all Fs < 2.60, all ps > 0.10).
ERP data from a rep rese nta ti ve sub -arr a y of nine channels we re use d for a nal ysis .
This sub -a rra y
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 24 const it uted
three colum n s over left, c enter and ri ght hemi sphere locati ons , each with t hre e ele ctrode
sit es ex tending from the f ront to t he back of the h e ad (see Fi gure 3). W e ha ve used a sim
il ar app roac h to
anal yz e ERP data in a nu mber of previous studi es and find it to be a good c ompromi se
between
sim pli cit y of d esign (a si ngle A NOVA can be us e d in each an al ysis epoch) and describin
g the ov era ll
dist ributi on of effects. Al l data wer e anal yz ed usi n g mul ti -fa ctor rep eated m easures
ANOVAs with
withi n -participant fa ctors of R elations hip T ype ( Id enti t y rel ated, S emantical l y rel ated,
Phonemic Ons et
related), word-pictur e R e latedness (Related, Unrel ated), Lat erali t y (left, m i dli ne, right), and
Anterio r
P osterior (AP) Dist ributi on electrode pl acem ent (f rontal, centr al, parietal). The depend ent m
easur es
were the m ean ampl it ude measurements i n thre e c onsecuti ve ti me windows : 100 -200ms ,
200 -350ms ,
and 350 -550ms post -sti mul us onset. P revious work in our lab has used thes e windows to
assess a cti vit y
of the N/P 150 and N250/ N300 components (Edd y, S chmi d, & Holcomb, 2 006, Edd y &
Holcomb,
2010). The window used to assess acti vit y in t he N 400 epoch is also si mi lar to t hat used in ot
her picture
nami ng studi es (e. g. Koe ster & S chil ler, 2008 ). In the reportin g result s of t hese rep eated
m easur es
ANOVAs, w e use the Hu yn h - Feldt co rre cti on (19 76).
W e suppl emented the an al yses d escrib ed above w it h a more post -hoc but fi ner - gr ained
an al ysis
in which we ex ami ned modul ati on across rel ated a nd unrelated condit ions f or each R
elations hip T yp e at
each sampli n g point (ev e r y 5ms) unti l 600m s afte r picture onset, usi ng anal ys es o f
varian ce ( ANOV As)
in m ult ipl e regions ac ros s the scalp, encomp assi ng all el ectrode sit es (see Kuperbe r g et
al., 2011, F igure
1). W e noted intervals i n which a seque nce o f at l e ast 12 consecuti ve tests ( Guthrie and
Buchw ald,
1991) in one or more re gions showed a signifi cant differen ce b etween cond it ions (at p <
0.05).
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 25
Resu lts
B eh avioral Resu lts
Accurac y
Error r ates ar e shown fo r each condit ion i n Figur e 4A. The y we re ex ami ne d
through a 2x 3
repeat ed measur es ANO VA, and showed a main effe ct of R elatedn ess (F( 1,19) = 104.53 , p
< 0.001 ) due
to m ore erro rs in the relat ed than the unrel ated con dit ions, and a ma in effe ct of R elations
hip T ype
(F(2,38 ) = 27.78, p < 0.0 01) due to si gnific antl y more erro rs in the Seman ti c than eit her the
Id enti ty
(t(19) = 5.35, p < .001) o r the P honemi c Onset (t( 19) = 5.27, p < .001) con dit ions .
There w as also a si gnific ant i nteracti on betw een R elations hip T ype and R elatedness
( F(2,38 ) =
11.62, p < 0.001). Foll ow -up t -tests at ea ch level o f Relations hip T ype sho wed si gnifi cantl y
more e rrors
on related than to unr elat ed tar gets i n the Semanti c condit ion (t(19) = 7.38 9, p < .001) and
in the
P honemi c Onset conditi on (t(19) = 6.574, p < .001 ) , but not in t he Id enti t y c ondit ion
(t(19) = .659, p =
.518). Foll ow -up AN OV As at each l evel of Relat edness, sh owed si gnific a nt di fferen ces
betw een th e
three R elations hip T ypes on the Related tar gets ( F (2,38) = 21.55, p < .001 ), due to m ore
er rors on th e
S emanticall y r ela ted than eit her the P honemi c Ons et r elated (t(19) = 5 .27, p < .001) or
the Identi t y
related (t(19 ) = 5.35, p < .001) tar gets. In addit ion, t here we re si gnific ant ef fects of R elations
hip Type
on the Unrelated t ar gets ( F(2,38) = 6.41, p < .005), due to more er rors in na mi ng the S
emanticall y
u nrelated ta r gets than the P honemi c Onset u nrelat ed tar gets (t(19 ) = 4.49, p <
.001 ), as w ell as more
errors in n ami n g the Id en ti t y u n related t ar gets t han the Phonemic Onset unr elated tar
gets (t(19) = 2.7 2, p
< .015 ).
N aming ti mes
The ave ra ges , stand ard e r rors and r an ges of p artici pants nami n g ti mes for ea ch
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 26 corre ctl ynamed ta r get pi cture in ea ch condit ion ar e shown in Fi gure 4 B. Th ese nami n g latenci es ar
e
longer th an in m ost pi cture nami n g studi es, proba bl y be cause all picture it e ms were novel
(as not ed
above, we did not pr acti c e participants on ex perim ental it ems before th e ERP ex
periment , and we
counterbalan ced li sts so t hat no i ndivi dual parti cipant saw a given ta r get i n more than one
condit ion ).
These median n ami ng ti mes were ex ami ned with 2 x 3 ANOVAs, both b y subj ects
(Relatedness an d
R elations hip T ype w ere withi n -subj ects variables ) and b y it ems (Relations hip T ype was a b
etween - it ems
variable and R elatedness a withi n -it ems variable).
There w as a ma r ginall y s ignificant eff ect of Relat edness i n the subjects an al ysis (
F1(1, 19) =
3.90, p = .063) but not in t he it ems anal ysis ( F2(1, 265) = 2.06, p = .152). T here w as also a
main e ffe ct
of R elations hip T ype (F1 (2,38) = 49.97, p < .001;_ F2(2, 265) = 11.29, p < . 001).
int erest,
Of most
however, the re w as a si gnificant i nteracti on betw e en Relationshi p T ype an d Relatedness (
F1(2, 38) =
11.72, p < .001;_~2(2, 26 5) = 12.27, p < .001). This wa s first foll owed up b y ex ami ning the eff
ect of
R elatedness for each R elations hip T ype usin g pair ed t -tests .
wer e named
Identi t y relate d pictures
significantl y f aster than Unrelated pictu res (t1(19 ) = 3.48, p < .005;_~ 2(88) = 4.00, p < .001).
P hone mi c
Onset related pi ctures w e re also named faster th an Unrelated pictu res, altho ugh thi s ef fect
r ea ched
significan ce onl y in t he s ubjects anal ysis (t1(19) = 2.31, p = .032;_~ 2(88) = 0.67, p = .505).
In cont ra st,
S emanticall y r elated pict ures we re named si gnific ant l y slowe r than Unr elat ed pictures
(t1(19 ) = 2.63 , p
= .017;_~ 2(88) = 2.74, p = .008).
W e also foll owed up the R elations hip T ype b y R e latedness i ntera cti on b y e x ami
ning the effe ct of
R elations hip T ype at eac h level of Relatedn ess. A s ex pected, there w as a si gnific ant eff ect
of
R elations hip T ype on the related ta r gets ( F1(2,38) = 41.09, p < .001;_~2 (2,2 67) = 20.76, p
< .001)
because it took pa rticipa nts significantl y longer t o name the S emanticall y related ta r gets t
han the
Id enti t y r elated ta r gets (t 1(19) = 7.10, p < .001, t2 (176) = 6.68 , p < .001 ) or the P honemi c
Onset rela ted
targets (t1(19) = 6.81 , p < .001, t2(177) = 3.63 , p < .001). Nami n g ti mes w ere also si gnific
antl y lon ge r
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 27 to the P
honemi c Onset re lated tar gets t han the Ide nti t y related t ar gets (t1(1 9) = 3.81 , p < .005,
t2(177) = 2.64 , p < .01 ). In addit ion, there w as an effe ct of Relati onshi p T ype on the unrelat
ed tar gets ,
which rea ched si gnific an ce in t he subj ects an al ysi s (F1(2,38) = 10.65, p < . 005) and appro
ach ed
signifi can ce in t he it ems anal ysis ( F2(2,267 ) = 2.5 2, p = .082) . A gain n ami ng ti mes we
re lon ger in t he
S emantic condit ion t han in either the Identi t y (t1( 19) = 3.51 , p < .002, t2( 177) = 1.86 , p =
.065) o r
P honemi c Onset (t1(19) = 5.36 , p < .001, t2(177) = 2.04 , p < .05) condit ions, alt hough
these
differen ces (on ave ra ge, 64 ms) were mu ch sm all e r than on the tar gets (on a vera ge, 165
ms ).
The longer ti mes to name the unrelated s emantic ta rgets (rel ati ve to unrelate d targets
i n the other
two condit ions) are unli k el y to be du e to di ffe renc es in frequen c y, number of letters, num
ber of
phonemes, number of s yl lables of the names o f the tar gets, or the fami li arit y of the pi ctures,
which were
matched a cross the thre e R elations hip T ypes (s ee Methods) . As noted abov e, there w er e
also m ore e rrors
in naming the unr elated t ar gets i n the Semanti c th an the Phonemic O nset c ondit ion (alt
hough not more
than in the Id enti t y condit ion ). One possi bil it y the refor e is t hat t he picture t ar gets t hat
we us ed in t he
S emantic cond it ion were inherentl y mo re diffi cult to name, perhaps b ec ause the y w ere
mo re ambi guo us
than in the other condit ions . In o rder to det ermine whether an y b aseli ne dif f icult y in namin g
the tar get
pictures in t he semanti c c ondit ion drove the int eraction between R elations h ip T ype and
Relatedn ess
(e. g. as a result of a ps yc hometric artifa ct), we ca r ried out t wo addit ional a nal yses. First,
for ea ch
R elations hip T ype, w e ca lculated the per centa ge d ifferen ce s co res (i. e. the differen ce in
namin g ti mes
between the un related an d the related condit ions divi ded b y the n ami ng ti mes to t he
unrelated condit ion)
and enter ed these v alues int o a repeat ed measur es ANOVA. This s howed a main effe ct of R
elations h ip
T ype, (F (2,38)=10.79, p = .001 ), with foll ow-up t tests (ex ami ning differ en ces from z ero)
confirmi n g
significant prim in g e ffe cts i n t he Id enti t y (t(19 ) = - 3.39, p = .003) and P ho n emi c Onset
(t(19) = -2.21 6, p
= .03 9 ) condit ions, but a significant i nter fer enc e e ffect i n the Semant ic con dit ion, (t(19) =
2.487, p =
.0 22 ). S econd, we repe at ed the subjects an al ysis o n a subset of nine pa rticipants who
showed no
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 28 significant di f
fer ence in nami ng ti mes to unrelate d targets ac ross the thre e R elations hip T ypes . This
also reve aled a si gnific an t R elations hip Typ e b y R elatedness int er acti on ( F( 2,16)=12.06,
p = .00 1 ), with
follow -ups a gain sho win g beh avioral Id enti t y pri mi ng ( t (8) = -3.746, p = . 006), but S
emantic
int erfer ence ( t (8) = 2.600 , p = .032);_ the small er P honemi c Onset prim ing e ffect di d not
re ach
significan ce in t his s u bse t (t (8) = -1.567, p = .156) , probabl y bec ause of a la ck of powe r.
W e also
ex ami ned the ER P data in thi s subs et of participa nts and thi s showed the same patt ern o
f findi ngs a s that
reported b elow.
E RP r esu lts
Voltage maps in t he 350 - 550ms ti me window and gr and ave ra ges of midl ine ER P
s, ti me -locked
to t he presentation of ta r get pi ctur es ar e plot ted in Figu re 5. Th ese fi gur es a nd the anal
yses r eported
below use ERP s aver a ge d across all trials (thi s ha d the advanta ge of max im iz ing power
and mainta ini ng
count erbalan cin g ac ross li sts ). The ERP result s, however, wer e quali tativel y sim il ar
when repe ated o n
corre ctl y- answ ered tri als (see suppl ementa r y fi gur e at
htt p:/ /www.nmr.mgh.har vard.edu/k upe rber glab/m
aterials.ht m ). Early eff ects
Visual i nspecti on of the wavefo rms indi cated no earl y diver genc es in t he wavefo rms
betwe en
100 -200ms or betwe en 2 00 -350ms . This was refl e cted b y the absen ce o f an y main e ffe
cts of R elated ness
or int eracti ons betw een R elations hip T ype, Relat edness and/or an y dist ributi onal variables
(all ps > 0.36,
all Fs < 1.05).
T he N 400: 350 -550ms
Anal ysis of th e mean am pli tude across the N400 t im e window through an omni bus
ANOVA
reveal ed a main e ffe ct of R elatedness ( F(1,19) = 1 2.29, p < 0.005 ). The re w as no t wo -wa y
int e racti o n
between R elat edness and AP Dis tribut ion ( F(2, 38) = .45, p = .552 ), o r thre e-wa y int e racti
on betw ee n
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 29 R elatedness,
AP Dist ributi on and Rela ti onshi p (F( 4, 76) = .71, p = .501 ). H owever, the re w as a
significant i nter acti on bet ween Relationsh ip, R elat edness and Lat erali t y ( F( 4,76) = 2.59, p
< 0.05 ). T his
three-w a y int era cti on wa s followed up b y ex ami ning the eff ect of Relate dn ess t hrough 2
(Relatedne ss) x
3 (AP Dist ributi on) ANO VAs for e ach of th e thre e R elations hip T ypes Id enti t y, S
emantic and
P honemi c Onset at ea c h of the three colum ns (left, mi dli ne and ri ght).
P ictures prec eded b y Id e nti t y re lated words evok e d a small er N400 than pi ctures
pre ced ed b y
Unrelated wo rds. This ef fect was qui te widespre a d and si gnific ant at all three colum ns,
althou gh th e
effe ct was la r ger in the right column ( F(1,19) = 9. 8, p < 0.01) and the midl ine colum n (F(1,19)
= 9.0 7, p
< 0.01) than the le ft colu mn (F(1,19) = 5.25, p < 0.05). P ictures pre ceded b y S emantic all y r
elated words
also evoked a small e r N4 00 than those prec eded b y U n related w ords, but thi s was primaril
y centr all y
dist ributed;_~ he effe ct of R elatedness re ach ed si gn ificance in t he mi dli ne co lum n (
F(1,19) = 4.6, p <
0.05 ), approa ched s i gnifi canc e in t he left column ( F(1,19) = 3.35, p = 0.08) but was non -s
ignifi cant i n
the right column ( F(1,19 ) = 2.15, p = 0.16 ). In non e of these A NOVAs w er e there int e racti
ons betw een
R elatedness and AP Dist ributi on (all Fs < 1.57, al l ps > .225), indi cati ng th at t he N400 ef
fects w ere of
equal m a gnit ude a cross the AP ax is of the scalp. In comparin g the Phonem ic Onset relat ed
and
Unrelated p airs, ther e we re no main ef fects of R elatedness or int er acti ons b etween Relat
edness and AP
Dist ributi on in an y of the three colum ns (all Fs < 0 .87 , all ps > 0.37).
Our finer - grained tim e -c ourse anal ysis showed si gnific ant di ffe renc es bet ween
the w avefo rms
evoked b y the Id enti t y r e lated and Unr elated pictu res betwe en 355 and 600 ms, and
between the
wavefo rms evoked b y S e manticall y r elated and U nrelated pictur es betwe en 325 and 600ms
. Again, t here
were no si gnific ant di ffe r ences betw een w ave form s evoked b y P ho nemi c O nset related
and Unrel ate d
pictures with in t he first 600m s after pictur e onset.
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 30
Discuss ion
The aim of this s tud y w a s to i nvesti gate how mani pulations of content at di ffer ent l
evels of
repres entation influenc e speech produ cti on b y m e asuring ERP s an d n ami ng laten cies to
pi ctures
preced ed b y words with di fferent t ypes o f rel ati onshi ps t o the names of the pictures. Dep
ending on s uch
relations hip s , ERP and behavioral findi n gs eithe r patt erned to gethe r or cou l d be diss
ociated. W hen
pictures wer e pr eced ed b y wo rds that wer e identic al (versus unr elated) to t h e ir name s ,
pa rticipants
showed faste r nami n g ti mes as well as an att enua ti on of the N400 ERP component, i.e.
the y show e d
both behavioral and elect roph ysiol o gical i denti t y prim ing. W hen pictures were p re c eded b
y wo rds that
had the same phonemi c o nsets as their names (v ers us unrelated to t heir nam es ),
participants s how ed
faster nami n g ti mes (P ho nemi c Onset behavio ral prim ing) , but no di ff eren ces in t he ERP
w avefo rm over
the 600ms epoch we anal yz ed. W hen pi ctures w er e prec eded b y s emantical l y rel ated (v
ersus unrel ated)
words, participants s how ed longer nami n g ti mes ( behavioral sem anti c int er feren ce), but an
att enuati on
of the N400 component ( electroph ysiol o gical sem anti c primi ng). Th e r esult s from each o f
th ese
manipulations will be consi dered in t urn.
Id enti t y r elations hip
The fa cil it ati on of nami ng ti mes of pictur es pre ce ded b y an identical conte x t word
repli cates
previous findi ngs o f cros s -repr esentational identit y prim in g, even when the prime word is p
res ented for
ver y short periods ( Glase r & Dun gelhoff, 1984;_~ osins ki et al., 1975). Na mi ng latencies refl
ect t he
culm ination of mult ipl e processi n g sta ges r equired for producti on. The att e nuati on of the
N400 to
pictures pre ceded b y id e nti t y (versus un related ) words suggests that the p rimi ng ef fect
w as mediat ed, in
part , b y residual a cti vati on from t he contex t word at t he conc eptual and lem ma levels of rep
resent ati on,
at a sta ge of word -lev el semanti c proc essi ng (Barr ett et al., 1988;_~ E y et a l., 2006). It is
also l ikel y that
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 31 the observed
b ehavioral f acil it ati on was driven b y overlap of phon eme rep r esentations at l ater sta ges
of processi n g, which wer e not refle cted in the ER P waveform .
P honemi c Onset relation ship
Our findi ng o f Phonemi c Onset behavior al fa cil it a ti on a masked onset pri mi ng ef
fect (M OPE)
also repli cates othe r studies (S chil ler, 2004;_~ chil ler, 2008). W hat i s int eresti ng is t hat
we sa w no
differenti al m odulation i n the ERP waveform fo r thi s contrast wi thi n the 600ms epoch we
anal yz ed
(prio r to the onset of a rticulator y artif act). As not ed in t he Introducti on, th e precis e ti me
-cours e of acc ess
to phonological r epres entations during spe ech pro ducti on remains uncle ar. Ind efr e y and
Le velt (199 9)
suggested th at phonol ogi cal encodin g o ccurs qui te earl y, betw een 275 -400 ms after pictur e
onset, bu t t his
conclusi on was mainl y b ased on data from ea rl y ERP studi es usi ng the laterali z ed re
adiness potential,
which ma y not gener ali z e to natural word p roduct ion. Two studi es suggest that at l east s
ome
phonol ogical i nfo rmati on can be come av ail able be tween approx im atel y 300 -500ms after
pictur e onse t:
first, Vi hla et al. (2006) u sed MEG to show more f ronto -temporal a cti vit y a fter 300ms when p
articip ants
named or made phonolo gical decisi ons about pi ctu res, than d urin g a s emant ic decisi on task
or passi v e
viewing. S e cond, using t he classic pictur e picture tar gets wi th sup er im posed dist racto r words , which shared th e first t wo or three phon
emes of their
names, gene rated a less n egati ve wav eform b etwe en 250 -450ms than when unrelated
dist ra ctors we r e superim posed.
In both of th ese pr evious studi es, however, eff ects are
li kel y to have b een d r iven b y ov erlap of
phonological wo rd-fo rm repres entations . In the pr esent st ud y, the re w as no overlap
betw een the p rime
and tar get nam e past t he first pho neme. A s di scus sed in t he Introducti on, most behavioral
st udies of the
phonemi c onset prim ing effe ct sugg est t hat it occu rs at a later st a ge, durin g prepar ati on
of the
articulator y r esponse (G r ainger & F err and, 1996;_~ Kin hit a, 2000;_~ chil ler, 2008).
Other pr evious ERP
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 32 studi es
support thi s idea. For ex ampl e, S chil ler (20 06) reported an ERP eff e ct wit h a latenc y of
approx im atel y 500ms in association wit h lex ical stress encodin g (thou ght t o occur in pa
rall el wit h the
retrieval of phon eme r epr esentations ). Fu rthermor e, Timm er and S chil ler ( 2010) , usi ng a
word -n ami ng
paradi gm, demonst rated a behavior al m asked ons et prim ing e ffe ct but onl y weak modul ati
on of the ERP
wavefo rm in l ater ti me w indows . Our present findings of a behavio ral phon emi c onset prim
ing eff ec t,
but no electroph ysiol ogi c al phonemic onset prim ing e ffe ct wit hin the epoch we anal yz ed,
adds t o thi s
evidence th at t hat t he retr ieval of indi vidual phone me repr esent ati ons occu r s qui te late in
producti on .
Future studi es, an al yz in g the ER P waveform ba ck wards from the ons et of a rticulati on ma
y b e able to
define the pr ecise tim ing of acc ess t o these r epres e ntations .
S emantic relations hip
Of most int erest was the diss oci ati on we observed between the electroph ysi ological and
behavioral dat a when the ta rget pi ctures w er e pre c eded b y s emantic all y rela ted words.
The lon ge r
nami ng ti mes to pi ctures preced ed b y semanti c all y related (v ersus unr elated ) contex t
words repli cate s
the semantic interf eren ce effe ct t hat has be en cons ist entl y obs erved in pi ctu re nami n g
studi es (Blo e m et
al., 2004; Ehri, 1976; Finkbeiner & C aram az z a, 2006;_ Lupke r, 1979;_~ osins ki, 1977). St
rikingl y,
however, this beh avioral int erfer ence o ccu rred in t he p resen ce of an att enu a ti on of the
ER P wavefor m
between 350- 550ms , which was sm all er (less ne ga ti ve) to related than to un related pictur
es. This ERP
modul ati on it s time-course, scalp di stribut ion a nd morpholog y is s im il ar to that seen in pr
evious
studi es ex ami ning the N400 component to pi ctures in non -nami ng tasks (M cP herson &
Holcomb, 19 99 ;_
Edd y et al., 2006; Edd y e t al. 2010). It i s also si mi lar to t wo previous ERP studi es ex ami
ning the N400 to pi ctures in n ami ng tas ks (Chaunce y et al., 2009;_~ Kster & S chil ler, 200 8).
We therefore t ake thi s to be an N400 e ffe ct and su ggest t hat i ts modul ati on refle cted
autom ati c sem a nti c primi ng.
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 33 In theo r y,
ther e ar e seve r al poss ibi li ti es for ex actly wh at repr esentation of t he picture w as
prim ed b y the contex t word. Ou r f avored int e rpret ati on is that prim ing occu rred at t he int e
rfa ce betw een
it s conceptual and lemma repres entations , i.e. at a stage o f whole -word sem anti c processi n
g. This i s
based on a la r ge li teratu r e ex ami ning the proc essi ng of words and pictur es that maps modul
ati on within
the N400 ti me window to a mapping b etwe en conc eptual featu res and a mor e abstra ct,
amodal l evel o f
semantic repr esentation. This s tage o f proc essi ng i s often thought t o be sha r ed betwe en
compreh ensi on
and producti on ( Lev elt et al., 1 999), and, as di scus sed in t he Introducti on, p revious
producti on st udie s
have also int erpr eted mo dulation wit hin t he N400 tim e window to reflect a cti vit y at t his l
evel of processi n g (Ko ester and S chil ler, 2008;_~ haunce y et al., 2009). Ac cordin g to t his i
nt erpretation, encounterin g the contex t word led to som e autom a ti c spread of acti vati on to t
he conceptu al and lem ma
repres entations of the tar get pi ctur e (fo r eviden ce that N400 modulation m a y refl ect spre
adin g acti v ati on
under at l east p artl y auto matic cond it ions, see Kie fer, 2002;_~ eher, Holco mb, & Kupe
rber g, 2006 ), facil it ati ng acc ess t o these repr esentations durin g nami ng. It i s, howev
er, possibl e, t hat rather th an re flecti n g prim ing at t he int er fac e b etween the
conceptual and lemma re presentations , the N400 a tt enuati on reflect ed cross -modal prim
ing of the
-v erbal con c eptual featu res onl y. W e thi nk that thi s is unlikel y for seve ral re asons. First ,
even seri al m odels of lan gua ge producti on all ow f or a high de gr ee of inte ra cti vit y betwe
en con c eptu al
and lemma rep resentatio ns ( Levelt et al., 1999). Interpreti n g the N400 as r eflecti n g pur e
conc eptual
prim ing would im pl y tha t access t o a mor e abstr ac t semanti c repr esentation (the lemm a)
w as dela ye d
past 600 ms. S econd , we know that t he N400 is not sim pl y sensiti ve to con c eptual featu res,
but also t o at
least s ome more abstr act lex ical information, i ncludi ng lex ical frequ enc y (R ugg, 1990;_~ n P
ett en &
Kutas, 1990), nei ghborho od si z e (Holcomb et al., 2002) and morpholo gical information (
Koester &
S chi ll er, 2008 ). Third, the wave form t hat has be en most closel y associ ated with t he
processi n g of a
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 34 400ms the
N300, whic h is t hought t o refle ct ac c ess t o a picture-sp ecific c onceptual rep resent ati on
that is invariant to it s size, shape or rotati on (Barr ett & R ugg, 1990;_~ cP herson & Holcomb,
1999; Edd y
et al., 2006).5
A third possibi li t y is t hat, rather than refl ecti ng act ivi t y at t he con ceptual/l e mm a
int erfac e, the
N400 in t his s tud y w as in fluenced b y acti vit y at a phonological wo rd-fo rm repres entation
of the
. This t ype of modali t y-spe cific wh ole-word phonolo gical r e presentation (lex eme) do es
ssed in other models, which pl ace it betw een con ceptua l and
phonemi c repr esentation s , inst ead of (C ar amaz z a, 1997;_ S tarreveld & La H eij , 1996 ), or
in additi on to
(Cutt ing & Fer reir a, 199 9), the lemma. As discus sed in t he Introducti on, t here is eviden ce
tha t t he N400
component can b e influe nced b y whole -word pho nological i nfo rmati on during nami n g ( J
escheni ak and
Friede rici , 2002;_ J eschen iak et al., 2003). Ind eed,
phonological i nfo rmati on can oc cur b y 200ms afte r picture onset ( S trijkers , C osta &
Thierr y, 2009;_
S trijkers, Holcomb & C o sta, 2011 ). In the pr esent stud y, howev er, nami n g t im es were lon
ge r than in
ahead of tim e (see M ethods ). This is l ikel y to h ave dela yed a cc ess t o whole - word
phonologi cal
information. C onsi stent with t his i dea, Chaunce y et al. (2009)
ahead of tim es with the n ames of the pictur es, rep orted the same d e gre e of N400 att
enuati on to t ar ge t
pictures pre ceded b y id e nti t y (versus non -identit y) prim es when bil ingu al participants
named thes e i n
their second (v ersus their first) lan gua ge. In that c ase, ther e was onl y sema nti c, but no
phonol ogical ,
overlap betw een the p rime and the nam e of the ta r get (non e we re co gnates) , suggesti n g
that, at l e ast
5 No N300 att enuati
on, pr ior t o N400 att enuati on, was see n in t he pre se nt st udy, although i t was se en i n t he pi ct ur
e nami ng st udy by Chaunc ey et al . ( 2009) . T hi s ma y be be ca use Chaunce y et al . used a l
onger SOA than i n t he pr esent st udy. T hi s may ha ve e ncour aged s ome a ntici pat ion of
conceptual f eat ur es of the pi ct ur e sti mul us i t self , wit h a sprea d of acti vat ion fr om t he word
pri me di r ectl y t o a concept ual/ st r uct ural l evel of r epres ent at ion of t he pi ct ure.
T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 35
is dela yed, the N400 is not necessa ri
when nami n g
word -form repr esentatio n.
R ega rdless of whi ch of t hese ac counts is corr ect, the dissociati on between electroph
ysiol o gical
semantic prim ing and be havioral semanti c int er fe rence sh eds l ight on t he d ebate o ve r the
sta ge o f
processi n g in sp ee ch pro ducti on responsi ble for t he behavior al semanti c i nterfer enc e ef
fect . If, as we
have ar gu ed, N400 modu lation reflected s emantic prim ing at t he int er fac e b etween
conceptu al and
lemma levels of rep resen tation, t his pl a ces an y se mantic competit ion, l eading to beh avioral
semanti c
int erfer ence, p ast t he lem ma stage of a cti vati on. This argu es st ron gl y a gain st an account
b y which
selecti on occu rs b y comp eti ti on at t he lemma level, and rathe r su ggests that semantic inter
fe ren c e oc c urs
producti on , which assum es that onl y sel ected lem mas proce ed to phonol ogical encodin g
( Le velt et a l.,
1999;_~ oelofs, 2004). Rather, it suggests a mor e i nteracti ve model with so me feed forwa rd
influenc e of competing sem anti c infor mation at later sta ges of s peech produ cti on. The data
pr esented h ere c annot pi npoint the precis e stage of pro cessi n g wh ere comp eti ti on and
int erfer ence took pl a ce. One possi bil it y is t hat i t occurr ed at t he int er fac e between the s
emantic an d
phonological wo rd-fo rm repres entational levels ( e .g. S tarr eveld & La H eij , 1996 ). This
account assu mes
that acc ess t o the phonologic al word-f orm rep rese ntation was dela yed and did not inf
luence the N40 0
component, as di scussed above. A se cond possi bil it y is t hat, as Caram az z a and coll ea gu
es have
suggested, competit ion occurr ed st il l l ater durin g r esponse selecti on, with t he acti vati on of
the s ema nti c
repres entation of the cont ex t word conf li cti ng with the requirem ents of the nami ng task, le
ading to response inter fer ence thr ough a S troop -li ke eff ect (Mahon et al., 2007;_~ ar amaz
z a & C osta, 2000). W e also considered two l ess l ikel y a ccounts of the N400 semantic
prim ing effe ct. First, t hat i t
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T IT LE: BEH AV IORA L AND ERP MEASUR ES OF P IC TURE NAM IN G 37
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Figure(s)
Figu re 1: Ex ampl e of word -picture sti mul i pairs S ti mul i consisted of a co
ntex t word matched to a tar get pi ctur e on one of th ree t ypes of
relations hips: Id enti t y, P honemi c Onset, or S ema nti c. For e ach Relationsh
ip T ype, an
Unrelated contex t word was paired with t he same picture. Cou nterbalan cin g w
as with in
R elations hip T ype a cross two ex perimental li sts (to be seen b y dif fer ent par ti
cipants). For
ex ampl e, a <picture o f socks> mi ght be p re ceded d enti t y
related) but b y the word nrelate d). The <pictur e of a leaf > mi ght
appear with t he n set related) but wit h the word
nrel ated) i n li st 2. The <picture of a pie> mi ght app ear w it h the word
emanticall y r elated), but wi nrelated).
Thus, no indi vidual participant saw a given t ar get more than once, but acro ss all
participants, t he same ta r get pi ctur e for a given Re lations hip T ype w as seen
in bot h the
related condit ion and the unrelated condit ion.
The ave ra ge l en gth, num ber of s yll ables, number of phonemes and frequ en
cies of the
names of the tar get pi ctur es are giv en, with s tandar d deviations in parenthes
es. Values
were tak en from t he En gli sh Lex icon P roject, htt p:/ /elex icon.wustl .edu/ . The
pictures
were p resented in color a nd were tak en from t he Hemera P hoto Obje cts
database
(Hemer a Te chnologi es In c., 2002).
Figu re 2: Ex ampl e Trial Each trial consist ed of a f ix ati on prompt , a forwar d
mask, the contex t word, a backw ard
mask of random conson a nts and the tar get pi ctur e, in t hat order.
Figu re 3: EEG R ecordin g A rra y The sit es used for reco rding EEG wer e the
standa r d Inte rnati onal 10 20 S ystem l ocati ons
as well as 8 addit ional si tes. Lar ge r cir cles indi cat e the 9 sit es used for anal ys
is.
Figu re 4: P icture Nami ng B ehavior al Data Bar graphs showin g the mean per
centa ge of e rror s (4A) and the m ean ( acr oss su bjects) of
the median nami n g ti mes across it ems of a given c ondit ion (4B) to pictures preced
ed b y
unrelated and related con tex t words. The related p airs wer e eit her Identi t y r elated,
S emanticall y r elated or P honemi c Onset rel ated. S oli d li ne error ba rs depict
standard
errors o f these sco res , an d dott ed li ne error b ars d epict the ran ges (the max im
um and
mi nim um value across al l parti cipants for e ach co ndit ion).
Figu re 5: ERP W aveforms and Volt age Maps Le ft: W aveforms s hown
at frontal, c entral and p ar ietal si tes, ti me -locked to t he
presentation of ta r get pi c tures prec eded b y Unrela ted and R elated cont ex t
words for e ach
of three t ypes o f Relations hips: Identi t y relat ed, S e manticall y r elated and P
honemi c
Onset related.
R ight: Voltage maps of a vera ge volt a ge diff eren ce s between 350 -550 ms t o
target pi ctures
preced ed by Unr elated a nd Related contex t words for ea ch of the thr ee dif f erent t
ypes of
R elations hips.
A figu re showin g these wav efo rms and volt a ge maps to onl y cor rectl y- a nswered
trials
can be found at htt p:/ /www.nmr.mgh.h arva rd.edu/ kuperber gl ab/m aterials.h tm .
*Highlights
Hi gh li gh ts W e measured nami n g lat enc y and ERP s to t ar get pictures pre
ceded b y con tex t words.
Dissociati ons between be havior and ERP s depend ed on word-pictu re r elations hips. Id enti t y r
elations hips faci li tated nami ng and att enu ated the N400 r esponse. P honemi c Onset relation
ships facil it ated nami ng, but had no eff ect on t he ERP s. S emantic relations hips i nterfer ed
with namin g, but attenuated the N400 resp onse.