Phonological activation of ignored pictures: Further evidence for a cascade model of lexical access

Four experiments are reported exploring whether distractor pictures activate their phonological properties in the course of speech production. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with two pictures and were asked to name one while ignoring the other. Distractor pictures were phonologically related, semantically related or unrelated to the target picture. Naming latencies were faster in the phonologically related condition (the phonological facilitation effect-PFE) than in the unrelated condition. No difference between semantically related and unrelated distractors was observed. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to name the color in which a picture was presented while ignoring the depicted object. Naming latencies were faster when colors and objects were phonologically related. In Experiments 3 and 4, the PFE was replicated under slightly different experimental conditions. Together, these results reveal that distractor pictures that are irrelevant to the communicative intention of the speaker activate their phonological content. This observation supports the notion that activation flows in a cascaded manner through the speech production system.