It is well-established that people make predictions during language comprehension--the nature and specificity of these predictions, however, remain unclear. For example, do comprehenders routinely make predictions about which words (and phonological forms) might come next in a conversation, or do they simply make broad predictions about the gist of the unfolding context? Prior EEG studies using tightly controlled experimental designs have shown that form-based prediction can occur during comprehension, as N400s to unexpected words are reduced when they resemble the form of a predicted word (e.g., ceke when expecting cake). One limitation, however, is that these studies often create environments that are optimal for eliciting form-based prediction (e.g., highly constraining sentences, slower-than-natural rates of presentation). Thus, questions remain about whether form-based prediction can occur in settings that more closely resemble everyday comprehension. To address this, the present study explores form-based prediction during naturalistic spoken language comprehension. English-speaking adults listened to a story in which some of the words had been altered. Specifically, we experimentally manipulated whether participants heard the original word from the story (cake), a form-similar nonword (ceke), or a less-similar nonword (vake). Half of the target words were predictable given their context, and the other half were unpredictable. Consistent with the prior work, we found reduced N400s for form-similar nonwords (ceke) relative to less-similar nonwords (vake)-but only in predictable contexts. This study demonstrates that form-based prediction can emerge in naturalistic contexts, and therefore, it is likely to be a common aspect of language comprehension in the wild. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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让他们吃 ceke：在丰富的自然主义背景下基于形式的预测的电生理学研究。


众所周知，人们在语言理解过程中会做出预测——然而，这些预测的性质和特异性仍然不清楚。例如，理解者是否经常预测对话中接下来可能会出现哪些单词（和语音形式），或者他们只是对展开的上下文的要点进行广泛的预测？先前使用严格控制的实验设计的脑电图研究表明，基于形式的预测可以在理解过程中发生，因为当意外单词类似于预测单词的形式时（例如，期待蛋糕时的 ceke）对意外单词的 N400 会减少。然而，一个局限性是，这些研究通常会创造最适合引发基于形式的预测的环境（例如，高度限制的句子、比自然呈现速度慢的句子）。因此，关于基于形式的预测是否可以发生在更接近日常理解的环境中，仍然存在疑问。为了解决这个问题，本研究探讨了自然口语理解过程中基于形式的预测。说英语的成年人听了一个故事，其中一些单词被修改了。具体来说，我们实验性地操纵了参与者是否听到了故事中的原始单词 （cake）、形式相似的非单词 （ceke） 或不太相似的非单词 （vake）。根据上下文，一半的目标词是可预测的，另一半是不可预测的。与之前的工作一致，我们发现形式相似的非词 （ceke） 相对于不太相似的非词 （vake） 的 N400 减少，但仅在可预测的上下文中。这项研究表明，基于形式的预测可以在自然主义的背景下出现，因此，它很可能是野外语言理解的一个常见方面。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。