Written rather than spoken language experience predicts speed of spoken word recognition

Cultural experiences can be a powerful influence on human cognition. Here, we asked whether the experience with written language, a human cultural invention, predicts the speed of spoken word recognition beyond any (potential) influence of spoken language experience. Previous research had obtained inconsistent and contradictory results using a variety of experimental methods. Using a large dataset (Hintz et al., 2024a) that is unprecedented in size (number of participants) and depth (number of skills assessed), 613 typically developed native Dutch adults between 18 and 30 years carried out a lexical decision task (ALDT), a standard spoken word recognition task. The task neither involved pictorial input nor sentential processing. Participants listened to Dutch words and nonwords and judged their lexical status as quickly as possible. We performed drift diffusion modelling on the lexical decision response times and focused on drift rate as an indicator for the amount of auditory information that individuals accumulate before deciding on non/words’ lexical status. We hypothesized that participants differed in the quality of their lexical representations due to their spoken and written language experience and thus in how quickly and efficiently these representations can be accessed. Hierarchical regression analyses on participants’ drift rate parameters revealed that written rather than spoken language experience predicts speed of spoken word recognition. Further research could be directed at elucidating the exact mechanisms of these cultural (reading) influences on spoken word recognition.