Over a decade of research has investigated the verbal overshadowing effect. This phenomenon, first demonstrated by Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990), indicates that verbally describing a non-verbal stimulus (such as a face) can impair subsequent attempts at identification of the stimulus. Taken together, the current special issue on verbal overshadowing explores three critical aspects of the effect: (a) debates regarding the theoretical mechanisms governing the phenomenon, (b) boundary conditions that might define when the effect is observed, and (c) new domains and paradigms that explore the generality of the phenomenon.