60-Second Science: A Listener Anticipates Your Word Choice During Presentation

Not only do SCUPers enjoy learning more about how people think and learn, many of us often have to give presentations to small and large groups. It's just part of the job. So, you may enjoy this very brief podcast from Scientific American.

Language comes flying at you at up to five syllables per second. So it was thought that listeners keep pace by anticipating a small subset of all words that the listener is familiar with. Think of how a Google search anticipates words based on the first few letters you type in. But now scientists have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to actually watch the brain consider different words. They report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that you narrow the choices by considering words that begin with the same sound. So if I say, “I tasted the sweetest can…your brain might already be priming itself to hear candy. Or maybe cantaloupe. But not candle. Who needs the Game Show Network? You’re always playing Match Game in your head.