Interplay of semantic and phonological predictions in language comprehension: Insights from the visual world paradigm

Abstract

Prediction in language processing is a fundamental cognitive function that supports efficient comprehension and interaction by anticipating upcoming linguistic input from multiple cues, including semantic (meaning-based) and phonological (sound-based) information. This study examined the interaction between semantic and phonological pre-activation during predictive language processing using the visual world paradigm. Across seven experiments with Spanish speakers, we assessed predictive eye movements toward semantic and phonological competitors, both when these competitors were presented independently and when they directly competed, with two experiments specifically targeting bottom-up integration to evaluate the phono-semantic competition effects. Our results showed that predictive looks toward semantic competitors preceded the availability of phonological information. Moreover, when both cues were presented simultaneously, semantic predictions were prioritized during the anticipatory period, whereas phonological activation emerged primarily after the onset of the target word. Importantly, the bottom-up phonological effect occurred earlier in highly constraining sentence contexts than in neutral or absent contexts, indicating that semantic contexts facilitated phonological processing. Finally, the last two experiments demonstrated predictive fixations toward competitors phonologically related to the semantic competitor, suggesting that participants generated parallel predictions encompassing both semantic and phonological forms. Taken together, these findings support the framework of hierarchical predictive processing, in which semantic predictions guide and shape phonological predictions. The observed flexibility and context sensitivity of this system underscore the complexity of language comprehension, revealing that predictions are dynamically integrated and prioritized across multiple levels of linguistic representation.