Set size and repetition matter: comment on Caramazza and Costa (2000)

Caramazza and Costa, 2000 (Cognition 75, B51-B64) report three picture-word interference experiments testing the response set mechanism of the WEAVER++ model of spoken word production. They argue that their findings are problematic for WEAVER++ and that the model's architecture needs to be changed. I show that there is no need to fundamentally modify the model. Instead, the findings of Caramazza and Costa, and all previous findings, are explained by assuming that only a limited number of responses can be kept in short-term memory and that memory improves with response repetition. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.