Abstract
Written word production is often assumed to begin after the relevant spelling has been retrieved. We challenge this pre-onset assumption by asking whether spelling-related processing can continue during output. Across four picture-word interference experiments (Ns = 60, 72, 96, 93), participants typed or spoke picture names while ignoring pronounceable non-word distractors. Distractors either preserved the target-compatible spelling pattern or introduced a phonologically plausible alternative spelling; only the latter should disrupt writing if phonology makes alternative spellings relevant during orthographic retrieval. Bayesian mixed-effects mixture models estimated the probability that response-onset latencies and post-onset intervals came from a longer-duration component. Spelling-mismatch distractors sometimes facilitated onset responses but increased long-duration probability at later timings and within typed words. These late mismatch effects disappeared for spoken responses. These time-course data challenge the classical assumption that written words are mentally prepared as complete spellings before output begins; instead, orthographic retrieval can remain vulnerable to phonologically plausible alternatives during written production.