Verb generation task design with example items. Selection demand (high versus low competition) is crossed with retrieval demand (high versus low association strength). Nouns in the high selection demand conditions have multiple possible verb responses, while nouns in the low selection demand conditions have few possible verb responses (quantified as the LSA entropy, see Methods). Nouns in the high retrieval demand conditions have only weakly associated verb responses, while nouns in the low retrieval demand conditions have strongly associated verb responses (quantified as the LSA cosine, see Methods). High and low selection demand conditions are matched on retrieval demand, and high and low retrieval demand conditions are matched on selection demand, allowing the effects of each to be examined.