The temporal dynamics of spoken word recognition are highly debated. While some studies suggest serial processing of sublexical and lexico-semantic information (e.g., Kocagoncu et al., 2017), others reported parallel processing since early stages (e.g., Lewis & Poeppel, 2014). The current study employed multiple linear regression to predict MEG-evoked responses in 20 native Italian speakers during the semantic judgment of 438 Italian spoken words.

Learners detect probabilistic regularities in linguistic materials (Saffran & Kirham, 2018). In two experiments, we tested if this ability is active in reading and may underlie word learning. Italian speakers were shown letter strings and instructed to distinguish between novel words and foil distractors. Participants successfully detected that novel words complied with the statistics of Italian lexicon, and used this information to perform the task. Interestingly, among the several possible variables, they relied particularly on single bigram frequency.

We read texts at 300 words per minute, capture information about around 15 letters during each fixation, and access meaning from visual words in less than 40ms, with no need for awareness—these are all incredible feats for a machine with no biological endowment for visual word processing, such as our brain. [...]