The question of whether the relationship between a word's predictability and its processing time is linear or logarithmic is of substantial theoretical importance, as it arbitrates between theories of the predictability effect (preactivation vs. surprisal) and has implications for sentence processing generally. While several previous corpus studies have obtained evidence for a logarithmic relationship, Brothers and Kuperberg (2021b) obtained evidence for a linear relationship in a large self-paced reading study with well-controlled experimental materials. Here, the authors use Brothers and Kuperberg's materials in an eye tracking during reading experiment. The authors find clear evidence for a logarithmic relationship between predictability and the eye-movement measures of first fixation duration and gaze duration; this relationship is clearest when using predictability estimates from the large language model Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-2, which can distinguish small differences in predictability at the low end of the scale. The authors find that this conclusion is robust to log transformation of the reading time measures, and the authors find that the relationship between predictability and the log odds of word skipping may also be logarithmic. These results support surprisal as an account of predictability effects in natural reading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Ryan Buggy, Stephanie Cho, Cory Shain et al.· Journal of Experimental Psyc...· 1 citation
Healthy aging is associated with structural and functional brain changes. However, cognitive abilities vary in how they change with age: executive functions decline, while aspects of linguistic processing remain relatively preserved. This heterogeneity predicts differences among brain networks in whether and how they change with age. To evaluate this prediction, we used precision fMRI to examine the language-selective network and the Multiple Demand (MD) network, which supports executive functions, in older adults (N = 64) relative to young controls (N = 483). The MD network of older adults shows weaker, less spatially extensive, and more topographically variable activations during an executive function task and reduced within-network functional connectivity. In contrast, we find remarkable preservation of the language network in older adults: it responds during language comprehension as strongly and selectively as in younger adults, with similar left-hemispheric lateralization and within-network functional connectivity. These findings align with behavioral preservation of language comprehension in healthy aging. Here, the authors show that aging affects brain networks differently, with neural changes mirroring the preservation or decline of the cognitive functions they support. The multiple demand network exhibits age-related decline while the language network remains stable with age.
A. Billot, Niharika Jhingan, M. Varkanitsa et al.· Nature Communications· 0 citations
