Pervasive behavioral and neural evidence for predictive processing has led to claims that language processing depends upon predictive coding. Formally, predictive coding is a computational mechanism where only deviations from top-down expectations are passed between levels of representation. In many cognitive neuroscience studies, a reduction of signal for expected inputs is taken as being diagnostic of predictive coding. In the present work, we show that despite not explicitly implementing prediction, the TRACE model of speech perception exhibits this putative hallmark of predictive coding, with reductions in total lexical activation, total lexical feedback, and total phoneme activation when the input conforms to expectations. These findings may indicate that interactive activation is functionally equivalent or approximant to predictive coding or that caution is warranted in interpreting neural signal reduction as diagnostic of predictive coding.

预测处理的普遍行为和神经证据导致了语言处理依赖于预测编码的说法。形式上，预测编码是一种计算机制，其中只有与自上而下期望的偏差在表示级别之间传递。在许多认知神经科学研究中，预期输入的信号减少被视为预测编码的诊断。在目前的工作中，我们表明，尽管没有明确实施预测，但语音感知的 TRACE 模型展示了预测编码的这种推定标志，当输入符合预期时，总词汇激活、总词汇反馈和总音素激活减少。这些发现可能表明交互式激活在功能上等同于或近似于预测编码，或者在将神经信号减少解释为预测编码的诊断时需要谨慎。