Interference from related items in object identification

Interference between related items in the identification of objects was exa mined using a postcue procedure. Pairs of objects were presented as differe ntly colored line drawings followed by a color cue to indicate which object to name. Naming latencies were longer when both objects were from the same superordinate category than when they were unrelated. This interference ef fect was replicated when subjects were cued to report the color of a drawin g rather than its name. Interference was greatly reduced when more distinct ive attributes were used to distinguish members of a pair, both when the ta sk required naming an object and when it required report of an object's att ribute. These results challenge accounts of interference in the postcue par adigm that are based on competitive interactions in the activation of phono logical representations by semantics and instead implicate object-attribute integration in memory as the source of interference.