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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2024.05.08.592872

Limited cognitive resources reduce the language predictability benefit across the adult lifespan

Schuckart, M. M.·Martin, S.·Tune, S.·Schmitt, L.-M.·Hartwigsen, G.·Obleser, J.
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Abstract

Humans routinely anticipate upcoming language, but whether such predictions come at a cognitive cost remains debated. In this study, we demonstrate the resource-dependent nature of predictive mechanisms in language comprehension across the lifespan: Experimentally limiting executive resources through a concurrent task reduces the effect of language predictability on reading time. Participants (N=175, replication N=96) read short articles presented word-by-word while completing a secondary font colour n-back task, thus varying cognitive demand. Language predictability was indexed by word surprisal as derived from a pre-trained large language model (GPT-2). Across two independent samples, our findings reveal that language predictions are not cost-free: They draw on executive control resources, and this dependency becomes more pronounced with age (18-85 years). These results help resolve the debate over cognitive demands in language comprehension and highlight prediction as a dynamic, resource-dependent process across the lifespan.

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Schuckart, M. M., Martin, S., Tune, S., Schmitt, L.-M., Hartwigsen, G., Obleser, J.. 2024-05-09. Limited cognitive resources reduce the language predictability benefit across the adult lifespan. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.08.592872

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