Articulatory Effects of Prediction During Comprehension: An Ultrasound Tongue Imaging Approach

Abstract

We investigated whether effects of prediction during spoken language comprehension are observable in speech-motor output recorded via ultrasound tongue imaging: Predicted words can be specified at a phonological level during reading comprehension, and listening to speech activates speechmotor regions. It has been suggested that speech-motor activation may occur during prediction of upcoming material (Pickering & Garrod, 2007). Speakers model their own upcoming speech, with the effects being observable at an articulatory level in the form of anticipatory co-articulation. We investigated whether the effects of prediction as a listener can also be observed at an articulatory level. We auditorily presented high-cloze sentence-stems, immediately followed by presentation of a picture for naming. Picture names either fully matched the omitted sentence-cloze item or mismatched it at onset (e.g., TAP-cap-). By-condition differences in picture-name articulation indicated that prediction of upcoming material during speech listening can engage speechmotor processes