  When participants in an experiment have to name pictures while ignoring
distractor words superimposed on the picture or presented auditorily (i.e.,
picture-word interference paradigm), they take more time when the word to be
named (or target) and distractor words are from the same semantic category
(e.g., cat-dog). This experimental effect is known as the semantic interference
effect, and is probably one of the most studied in the language production
literature. The functional origin of the effect and the exact conditions in
which it occurs are however still debated. Since Lupker reported the effect in
the first response time experiment about 40 years ago, more than 300 similar
experiments have been conducted. The semantic interference effect was
replicated in many experiments, but several studies also reported the absence
of an effect in a subset of experimental conditions. The aim of the present
study is to provide a comprehensive theoretical review of the existing evidence
to date and several Bayesian meta-analyses and meta-regressions to determine
the size of the effect and explore the experimental conditions in which the
effect surfaces. The results are discussed in the light of current debates
about the functional origin of the semantic interference effect and its
implications for our understanding of the language production system.
