A flexible criterion of response selection: When is it needed? Comment on Nozari and Hepner (2018)

To select or to wait? Response to the commentaries

In [Nozari, N., & Hepner, C. R. (2018). To select or to wait? The importance of criterion setting in debates of competitive lexical selection. Cognitive Neuropsychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/02643294.2018.1476335], we proposed a theoretical framework for reconciling two seemingly irreconcilable theories of lexical selection: competitive vs. non-competitive selection. The key point in this framework is the division of language production into two separate-albeit interacting-systems: a decision-making framework and a multi-layered system which maps meaning to sound. Technically, this can be accomplished by superimposing a signal detection model onto the distributions of conflict derived from the core dynamics of mapping semantic features to lexical representations. Based on this framework, we argued that a flexible selection criterion could accommodate patterns predicted by both competitive and non-competitive models of lexical selection. Five excellent commentaries posed various questions regarding the necessity, applicability, and scope of the proposed framework. This paper addresses those questions.