Journal of Experimental Psychology: Copyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. Learning, Memory, and Cognition 0278-7393/03/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.29.6.1270 2003, Vol. 29, No. 6, 1270–1282 The Gender Congruency Effect and the Selection of Freestanding and Bound Morphemes: Evidence From Croatian Albert Costa Damir Kovacic Universitat de Barcelona and Scuola Internazionale Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati Superiore di Studi Avanzati Evelina Fedorenko and Alfonso Caramazza Harvard University The authors report 3 picture–word interference experiments in which they explore some properties of the agreement process in speech production. In Experiment 1, Croatian speakers were asked to produce utterances in which the noun’s gender value had an impact on the selection of gender-marked freestand- ing morphemes (pronouns) while ignoring the presentation of same- or different-gender distractor words. In Experiments 2 and 3, Croatian speakers were asked to name the same pictures using noun phrases in which the noun’s gender value surfaced as an inflectional suffix. Different-gender distractors interfered more than same-gender distractors (the gender congruency effect) in Experiment 1, but not in Experi- ments 2 and 3. These contrasting results show that the cause of the gender congruency effect is not at the level where lexical–grammatical information is selected but at the level of selection of freestanding morphemes. A characteristic property of the language system is the relation- common gender noun and huis [house] is a neuter gender noun) ship of dependency among the words in an utterance. To produce take different determiner forms (de and het, respectively). Access well-formed sentences, speakers must access the grammatical to grammatical gender is necessary not only for the selection of properties that govern agreement among the words in the utter- freestanding morphemes, such as determiners and pronouns, but ance. This is necessary because the selection of some words and also for the retrieval of the inflectional suffixes of adjectives. For morphological inflections depends on the grammatical properties example, in the Dutch NP groene stoel [green chair], the adjective of other words included in the sentence. In some languages, one ends with the inflection e that is used with common gender nouns such property is grammatical gender. For example, when a Dutch in adjective ϩ noun NPs. speaker wants to produce a simple noun phrase (NP) such as de How are the selection of the noun’s gender and, subsequently, stoel [the chair], he or she needs to retrieve the gender of the noun that of the proper determiner and inflectional forms achieved? In stoel to select the proper determiner form (de, in this case). This is other words, how is gender agreement computed during speech because nouns with different grammatical genders (e.g., stoel is a production? Although resolution of this issue is important for understanding how sentences are built during speech production, our knowledge about how we compute agreement is rather limited (Bock & Levelt, 1994; Bock & Miller, 1991; Bock, Nicol, & Albert Costa, Department of Psicologia Basica, Universitat de Barce- Cutting, 1999; Haskell & MacDonald, 2003; Meyer & Bock, 1999; lona, Barcelona, Spain, and Cognitive Neurosciences Center, Scuola In- Thornton & MacDonald, 2003; Vigliocco, Butterworth, & Se- ternazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy; Damir Kovacic, menza, 1995; Vigliocco & Franck, 1999). In this article, we use the Cognitive Neurosciences Center, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati; Evelina Fedorenko and Alfonso Caramazza, Department of picture–word interference paradigm to explore gender agreement Psychology, Harvard University. in speech production by Croatian speakers. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health Grant The picture–word interference paradigm is a Stroop-like task in DC 04542, Spanish Government Grant BSO2001-3492-C04-01, and Mc- which participants are asked to name a picture while ignoring the Donnell grant Bridging Mind Brain and Behavior. Albert Costa was presentation of a distractor word (see MacLeod, 1991, for a review supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Scuola Internazionale Supe- of Stroop-like tasks). Manipulating the relationship between the riore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and by the research program Ramon y picture’s name and the distractor word leads to different effects. Cajal from the Spanish government. Damir Kovacic was supported by a For example, when both stimuli belong to the same semantic predoctoral fellowship from SISSA. We are grateful to Luca Bonati, category, naming latencies are longer than when they do not (the Marcela Pena, Jacques Mehler, Marina Nespor, Xavier Alario, Mikel Santesteban, and Scott Sinnett. so-called semantic interference effect; e.g., Caramazza & Costa, Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Albert 2000, 2001; Glaser, & Du¨ngelhoff, 1984; Glaser & Glaser, 1989; Costa, Department of Psicologia Basica, Universitat de Barcelona, P. Vall La Heij, 1988; Lupker, 1979; Roelofs, 1992, 2001). On the as- d’Hebron, Barcelona 171 08035, Spain. E-mail: [email protected] sumption that the contextual effects observed with this paradigm 1270 GENDER CONGRUENCY EFFECT AND MORPHEMES SELECTION 1271 reflect the processes involved in lexical access in speech produc- context in which a determiner appears also plays a role in its tion, researchers have used the paradigm to explore the mecha- selection. nisms of lexical selection (e.g., Schriefers, 1992; Schriefers, Meyer Miozzo and Caramazza (1999) noted that this property of Ro- & Levelt, 1990; Starreveld & La Heij, 1995; Vitkovitch & Tyrrell, mance languages could render invisible a gender congruency ef- 1999). For example, the semantic interference effect is assumed to fect in these languages. This is because the selection of a deter- arise as a consequence of competition among lexical nodes during miner form needs “to wait” until the phonology of the following lexical selection. That is, the ease with which a word is selected word is available, thereby masking any delay in gender feature depends not only on its level of activation but also on the level of selection. Consider the case of definite determiners in Italian, in activation of other lexical nodes that act as competitors (e.g., which singular definite determiners depend on the gender of the Roelofs, 1992; but see Costa, Mahon, Savova, & Caramazza, noun, masculine nouns take il or lo and feminine nouns take la. 2003; Miozzo & Caramazza, 2003). The choice between the masculine determiners il versus lo depends Schriefers (1993) was the first to use the picture–word interfer- on the phonological properties of the word that follows the deter- ence paradigm to explore the processes involved in the selection of miner. If the following word begins with a vowel, a consonant grammatical features and, specifically, in the selection of gram- cluster of the form s ϩ consonant or gn, or an affricate, then the matical gender. He investigated whether the retrieval of grammat- proper masculine determiner is lo (e.g., lo sgabello [the stool], lo ical features is a competitive process, as in lexical selection. He gnomo [the gnome]). In all other cases, the correct determiner is il. asked Dutch speakers to name colored pictures using either deter- Thus, one cannot select a determiner until the phonology of the miner ϩ adjective ϩ noun NPs (de groene stoel [the green chair]) word that follows it becomes available. In this scenario, it is or adjective ϩ noun NPs (groene stoel [green chair]), while possible that by the time the phonology is available, any compe- ignoring distractor words that had either the same or different tition in the retrieval of the noun’s gender has been resolved. In gender as the pictures’ names. In Dutch, determiners are gender other words, it is possible that gender congruency effects exist in marked, as are adjectives when used in adjective ϩ noun NPs. these languages but are invisible because of some language- Thus, in both types of NPs, speakers had to retrieve the noun’s specific properties affecting determiner selection. Independent of this cross-linguistic variation, there is still an gender to produce the correct determiner (freestanding morpheme) open debate about the origin of the gender congruency effect. or the correct inflection (bound morpheme). Given the assump- According to Schriefers (1993), the gender congruency effect is a tions that (a) the distractor word activates its grammatical features result of competition (or priming) at the level where the grammat- (and specifically its grammatical gender) and (b) the selection of ical properties of the noun are retrieved. One implication of this grammatical features is a competitive process, Schriefers argued proposal is that the selection of a given lexical node does not imply that the selection of the target’s gender feature would be more the selection of its grammatical features. Rather, the retrieval of difficult when the distractor and the picture’s name have different these features, including gender, is an independent competitive genders than when they have the same gender. The results con- process that follows the selection of a lexical node. There is, firmed this prediction: Naming latencies were faster when pic- however, another possible explanation for the gender congruency tures’ names and distractor words had the same gender in both effect,