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Abstract:
The blocked cyclic naming paradigm has been increasingly employed to investigate the
mechanisms underlying spoken word production. Semantic homogeneity typically elicits longer
naming latencies than heterogeneity; however, it is debated whether competitive lexical
selection or incremental learning underlies this effect. The current study manipulated both
semantic and phonological homogeneity and used behavioural and electrophysiological
measurements to provide evidence that can distinguish between the two accounts. Results show
that naming latencies are longer in semantically homogeneous blocks, but shorter in
phonologically homogeneous blocks, relative to heterogeneity. The semantic factor significantly
modulates electrophysiological waveforms from 200 ms and the phonological factor from
350 ms after picture presentation. A positive component was demonstrated in both
manipulations, possibly reflecting a task-related top-down bias in performing blocked cyclic
naming. These results provide novel insights into the neural correlates of blocked cyclic naming
and further contribute to the understanding of spoken word production.
