It has been nearly a decade since the publication of
Goldinger’s [4] Psych. Review paper in which he
presented his episodic theory of lexical access.
Moreover, Goldinger’s (and others’) empirical
work [3, 14] providing evidence for episodic
representations predates the formal presentation of
his episodic theory. This is an appropriate time to
note how the field has progressed in the past decade
with respect to the debate over the nature of lexical
representations. As evidenced by the two main
papers, the emphasis is no longer on whether there
are abstract and/or episodic representations. Instead,
the focus is now on the ideal framework that can
account for their coexistence. Goldinger’s
presentation of a complementary systems (hereafter
CS) approach offers a glimpse into the direction
that many future investigations of lexical
representation may be headed. I discuss some of the
challenges facing a CS approach in an effort to
stimulate further discussion, and to help provide an
impetus for future empirical, theoretical, and
modeling studies.