Goals and strategies influence lexical prediction during sentence comprehension

Predictive processing is a critical component of language comprehension, but exactly how and why comprehenders generate lexical predictions remains to be determined. Here, we present two experiments suggesting that lexical prediction is influenced by top-down comprehension strategies, and that lexical predictions are not always generated automatically as a function of the preceding context. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), participants read predictable and unpredictable sentence-final words while EEG was recorded from the scalp. When comparing two different sets of task instructions, the neural effects of doze probability were enhanced when predictive processing was emphasized. In Experiment 2 (N = 252), participants read predictable and unpredictable sentence continuations in a self-paced reading task, and the overall validity of predictive Cues was manipulated across groups using a separate set of filler sentences. There was a linear relationship between the benefits of a constraining sentence context and the global validity of predictive cues. Critically, no reading time benefits were observed as prediction validity approached zero. These results provide important constraints for theories of anticipatory language processing, while calling into question prior assumptions about the automaticity of lexical prediction. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.