Semantic facilitation and lexical competition in picture naming

Four experiments are reported to study lexical access in picture naming. Interference was found when semantically related word primes were presented, but no effect was obtained using picture primes (Experiment 1). In Experiments 2a, 2b and 3, we introduced a new technique: Doublepriming. The technique requires naming a picture target after presentation of two stimuli: a preprime stimulus and a picture prime. The results showed that the presentation of a semantically related preprime word slowed picture naming (Experiments 2a and 3). The interference was not due to the single effect of the preprime nor to the prime's lexical processing since related primes by themselves (Experiment 1), and primes preceded by unrelated word preprimes (Experiment 2b and 3) did not produce the effect. This pattern of results suggests that lexical access in picture naming involves two types of processes. The first is excitatory and semantic in nature; the second involves competitive lexical selection.