Word Production

When we speak, we often feel that what we say is produced with little effort. However, in situations where many words compete as a response, difficulties arise for both neurotypical speakers and speakers with language disorders (aphasia) as a result of brain damage. A long-standing controversy is whether the competition during word selection comes about because words are highly active and compete for selection, or because words are inhibited and thus unavailable for selection. By closely examining error types in persons with aphasia, my laboratory presented the first direct evidence that producing words in certain contexts is slower and more error prone because words are highly active, and thus compete for selection with the target (Schnur et al., 2006; Harvey & Schnur, 2016). Further, named words remain activated for some time after selection (Schnur, 2014) because intruding words are names from previously named pictures and are dependent on the recency of previous production (Hsiao et al., 2009; Wei & Schnur, 2019). These results suggest that words retain activation after production, competing with selection of a subsequent word. This line of work has implications for why some persons with aphasia have difficulty producing phrases and sentences, as they may be unable to resolve competition from words produced in the past and when selecting words for the present.

Schnur, T.T., Schwartz, M.F., Brecher, A., & Hodgson, C. (2006). Semantic interference during blocked-cyclic naming: Evidence from aphasia. Journal of Memory and Language, 54 (2), 199-227. [Impact Factor 5.1] DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2005.10.002

Hsiao, E.Y., Schwartz, M.F., Schnur, T.T., & Dell, G.S. (2009). Temporal characteristics of semantic perseverations induced by blocked-cyclic picture naming. Brain and Language, 108, 133-143. [Impact Factor 3.4] PubMed PMID: 19138794

Schnur, T.T. (2014). The persistence of cumulative semantic interference during naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 75, 27-44. [Impact Factor 5.1] DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2014.04.006

Wei, T. & Schnur, T.T. (2019). Being fast or slow at naming depends on recency of experience. Cognition, 182, 165-170. [Impact Factor 4.2] PubMed PMID: 30267953