Journal Article

How Do Speakers Resist Distraction? Evidence From a Taboo Picture-Word Interference Task

Hartsuiker, Robert J., Dhooge, Elisah

2011

Overview

Even in the presence of irrelevant stimuli, word production is a highly accurate and fluent process. But how do speakers prevent themselves from naming the wrong things? One possibility is that an attentional system inhibits task-irrelevant representations. Alternatively, a verbal self-monitoring system might check speech for accuracy and remove errors stemming from irrelevant information. Because self-monitoring is sensitive to social appropriateness, taboo errors should be intercepted more than neutral errors are. To prevent embarrassment, speakers might also speak more slowly when confronted with taboo distractors. Our results from two experiments are consistent with the self-monitoring account: Examining picture-naming speed (Experiment 1) and accuracy (Experiment 2), we found fewer naming errors but longer picture-naming latencies for pictures presented with taboo distractors than for pictures presented with neutral distractors. These results suggest that when intrusions of irrelevant words are highly undesirable, speakers do not simply inhibit these words: Rather, the language-production system adjusts itself to the context and filters out the undesirable words.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,Sage Publications,SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subject: Accuracy / Attention / Behavioural psychology / Biological and medical sciences / Cognition / Context / Distraction / Embarrassment / Error / Error Analysis / Errors / Evidence / Experimental psychology / Experimentation / Experiments / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Humans / Interference / Language / Linguistics / Memory / Modes of production / Naming / Photic Stimulation / Production / Production and perception of spoken language / Propriety / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychology. Psychophysiology / Public speaking / Research Report / Resistance / Response Time / Self-evaluation / Selfmonitoring / Speech / Speech - physiology / Speech production / Stimuli / Taboo / Taboo - psychology / Taboos / Temptation / Trade names / Verbal Behavior - physiology / Visual Media / Visual task performance / Word production / Words