Picture–word interference and the Response-Exclusion Hypothesis: A response to Mulatti and Coltheart

Mulatti and Coltheart (2011, this issue) review and summarize several findings from the picture-word interference paradigm that the authors argue challenge the Response Exclusion Hypothesis. However, the hypothesis they take to be the Response Exclusion Hypothesis is not that theory—it is an account developed by Mulatti and Coltheart that holds that target naming latencies in the picture-word paradigm are affected only by the process of excluding the distractor word (and by nothing else). We consider some of the background assumptions implicit in Mulatti and Coltheart’s discussion that may have led to this misattribution. Finally, we report a replication of an effect originally described by Dalrymple-Alford (1972) that serves as an empirical basis for reiterating the main points of our proposal and outlining the challenges that lie ahead.