LAUSR

Abstract Word-generation tasks have been frequently used in behavioral and neuroimaging research to explore the mechanisms of semantic retrieval and competition during language production. In the current study, we set out to explore the lexical competition effects in a verb-generation task among Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with the repetition priming paradigm, in which items had either one dominant response (low competition, LC) or no such dominant response (high competition, HC). Effects of lexical selection demands were observed in English verb generation task, indicating there were lexical competition effects. In addition, the mean response time (RT) of studied HC and LC stimuli was significantly shorter compared to that of non-studied ones, suggesting there were repetition priming effects. Taken together, the current study provides evidence supporting the role of lexical competition and repetition priming effects during second language (L2) verb generation.