Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Good-Enough production is the case where lexical selection between alternative words is subject to accessibility effects.Recent evidence suggests the name for a picture depends partly on the phonological form of the last word said. If Good-Enough production reflects variability in name activation and competition among alternative names, then non-adjacentmanipulations should also affect picture naming probability and latency. Participants read aloud printed words and namedpictures one at a time, including target pictures with two highly probable names (Dominant and Secondary). In theRepetition (vs Control) condition, Secondary names were read aloud in early trials, and target pictures were named at least50 trials later. Earlier reading resulted in a higher probability of Secondary names for target pictures, compared to Controlparticipants, suggesting that lexical selection is subject to non-adjacent influences. Dominant naming latency was greaterunder earlier Secondary name reading, supporting an interactive, competitive lexical selection mechanism.