Naming a picture is more difficult in the context of a
taxonomically-related picture. Disagreement exists on whether
non-taxonomic relations, e.g., associations, have similar or
different effects on picture naming. Past work has reported
facilitation, interference and null results but with inconsistent
methodologies. We paired the same target word (e.g., cow)
with unrelated (pen), taxonomically-related (bear), and
associatively-related (milk) items in different blocks, as
participants repeatedly named one of the two pictures in
randomized order. Significant interference was uncovered for
the same target item in the taxonomic vs. unrelated and
associative blocks. There was no robust evidence of
interference in the associative blocks. If anything, evidence
suggested that associatively-related items marginally
facilitated production. This finding suggests that taxonomic
and associative relations have different effects on picture
naming and has implications for theoretical models of lexical
selection and, more generally, for the computations involved in
mapping semantic features to lexical items.