The spatial interference effect, whereby words with implicit spatial associations (e.g., ‘bird’) hinder identification of unrelated visual targets (e.g., a square) at the associated locations (i.e., at the top of a display), has been demonstrated many times in English, although it has failed to replicate several times in Italian. The current study tested whether the replication failures in Italian may be due to insufficient semantic processing of the words. Indeed, while languages with highly inconsistent pronunciations, such as English, are more likely to involve semantic processing during word reading, languages with highly consistent pronunciations, such as Italian, tend to evoke weaker semantic processing during reading. In two experiments, semantic processing in Italian was induced by including a high proportion of irregularly stressed words. Spatial interference occurred in both experiments. It is concluded that relatively deep semantic processing is necessary for spatial interference to occur.
