Neurodynamical approach to the picture–word interference effect

The aim of this study is to explore the nature of the semantic effects in the picture–word interference paradigm. In particular, we focused on the (a) identity effect, (b) semantic interference effect, (c) semantic facilitation effect, and the semantic facilitation in categorization. Our model is based on integrate-and-fire neurons which are put in a network context featuring modular competition and cooperation at both intra- and intermodular level. A finely tuned balance of competition and cooperation is required to combine the mentioned effects in a coherent framework. We show that the mechanism for categorization must be functionally decoupled from the basic level mechanisms.