THE NATURE OF CROSS-MODAL COLOR-WORD INTERFERENCE EFFECTS

Cowan and Barren (1987) and Cowan (1989b) reported that color-naming p erformance was slowed by spoken color names drawn from the same set bu t presented in an order unrelated to the printed colors. Although Mile s, Madden, and Jones (1989) and Miles and Jones(1989) were unable to r eplicate this cross-modal effect, it is replicated here in two experim ents with much better experimental control than before. However, the e ffect is shown to depend upon the relative timing of the color and wor d in away that conflicts with the theoretical account that Cowan and B arren offered. While Cowan and Barren suggested that an irrelevant col or word would contaminate the response set if this word occupied short -term memory when the color was about to be named, it appears that int erference actually occurs only if the memory representation was formed very recently and had not been inhibited. Further implications for pr ocessing are discussed.