title: Resolving conflict: a response to Martin and Cheng (2006).
abstract: Martin and Cheng (2006) report the results of an experiment aimed at disentangling the effects of association strength from those of competition on performance on a verb generation task. Their experiment is situated at the center of a putative debate regarding the function of the left inferior frontal gyrus in language processing (see, e.g., Wagner, Pard-Blagoev, Clark, and Poldrack, 2001). Following in this tradition, Martin and Cheng purport to contrast two processes--selection between competing representations and controlled retrieval of weak associates--that we argue can be reduced to the same mechanism. We contend that the distinction between competition and association strength is a false dichotomy, and we attempt to recast this discussion within a Bayesian framework in an attempt to guide research in this area in a more fruitful direction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6241, USA. thompson@psych.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Sharon L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Thompson-Schill
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Botvinick
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005608:Free Association; D006801:Humans; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011930:Reaction Time; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary