Probabilistic adaptation of language comprehension for individual speakers: evidence from neural oscillations

Listeners adapt language comprehension based on their mental representations of speakers, but how these representations are updated remains unclear. We investigated whether listeners probabilistically adapt comprehension based on the frequency of speakers making stereotype-incongruent statements. In two EEG experiments, participants heard speakers make stereotype-congruent or incongruent statements, with incongruency base rate manipulated. In Experiment 1, stereotype-incongruent statements decreased high-beta (21-30 Hz) and theta (4-6 Hz) oscillatory power in the low base rate condition but increased it in the high base rate condition. The theta effect varied with listeners' openness trait: less open-minded participants tended to show theta increases to stereotype incongruencies, while more open-minded participants tended to show theta decreases. In Experiment 2, we dissociated incongruency base rate from the target speaker by manipulating it using a non-target speaker and found that only the high-beta effect persisted. Our findings reveal two potential mechanisms: a speaker-general mechanism (indicated by high-beta oscillations) that adjusts overall expectations about hearing statements that violate social stereotypes, and a speaker-specific mechanism (indicated by theta oscillations) that updates a more detailed mental model specifically about an individual speaker. These findings provide evidence for how language processing interacts with social cognition.