Multisensory Integration in Lexical Processing: Predicting Word Recognition Through Cross-Modal Capability

The integration of multisensory in lexical processing has garnered significant interest in cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics. This study investigates the predictive power of cross-modal capability (CMC) on word recognition, focusing on how sensory integration influences cognitive processing and lexical decision-making. By collecting five-sense ratings for synesthetic adjectives, we computed the cross-modal capability for each word. We then conducted regression analyses to examine the relationship between these indices and reaction time in lexical decision tasks. Our findings reveal that words with higher cross-modal capabilities, as measured by CMC, are recognized and processed more quickly. This superior predictive power of CMC underscores the importance of sensory associations in lexical processing and highlights the need for comprehensive indices that account for multiple sensory inputs. These results provide deeper insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying word recognition and processing speed, suggesting that CMC is a better independent variable for partially predict lexical cognition and recognition. This research contributes to our understanding of multisensory integration in lexical processing and has implications for models of word recognition and cognitive linguistics.