The picture-word interference effect is a Stroop effect after all

The idea that picture-word interference (PWI) and the Stroop effect are two manifestations of the same process has been widely accepted. However, recently Dell’Acqua and colleagues (2007) have questioned the identical nature of the Stroop effect and picture-word interference, based on the observation that the loci of both effects in the mental processing stream differ. In this paper, we will present a dynamic computational model of semantic interference for both the Stroop effect and PWI. The model is based on competition between possible responses in both Stroop and PWI tasks. The differences between both tasks are solely explained by differences in processing speed of the stimuli. This way, our model does justice to the different loci of effects observed by Dell’Acqua et al, while at the same time supporting the long-held view that both Stroop and PWI are indeed similar in the underlying processes