Faster Speech Slows Predictive Processing: Evidence from Mandarin

During language comprehension, people often predict what they are likely to encounter, but such predictions are affected by processing difficulty. In this study, we explored how speech rate influences listeners' prediction speed using three different methods. Participants read sentence contexts that either were or were not highly predictive of a final word, and we measured how quickly participants judged whether a given letter was contained in that final word (Experiment 1), named a picture corresponding to that final word (Experiment 2), and named that final word (Experiment 3). We manipulated the speech rates and contextual predictability of the sentences. Across the experiments, participants responded more slowly at a faster speech rate, and this slowing was greater in more predictable than less predictable contexts. These results suggest that a faster speech rate slows down prediction speed, reinforcing the idea that prediction demands cognitive resources.