title: Selective attention and distractor frequency in naming performance: comment on Dhooge and Hartsuiker (2010).
abstract: E. Dhooge and R. J. Hartsuiker (2010) reported experiments showing that picture naming takes longer with low- than high-frequency distractor words, replicating M. Miozzo and A. Caramazza (2003). In addition, they showed that this distractor-frequency effect disappears when distractors are masked or preexposed. These findings were taken to refute models like WEAVER++ (A. Roelofs, 2003) in which words are selected by competition. However, Dhooge and Hartsuiker do not take into account that according to this model, picture-word interference taps not only into word production but also into attentional processes. Here, the authors indicate that WEAVER++ contains an attentional mechanism that accounts for the distractor-frequency effect (A. Roelofs, 2005). Moreover, the authors demonstrate that the model accounts for the influence of masking and preexposure, and does so in a simpler way than the response exclusion through self-monitoring account advanced by Dhooge and Hartsuiker.
authors: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. A.Roelofs@donders.ru.nl
authors: Ardi
authors: A
authors: Roelofs
authors: Vitória
authors: V
authors: Piai
authors: Herbert
authors: H
authors: Schriefers
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary