Research

Human cognition, along with the brain that underlies it, arises from the interaction between biological endowment and cultural environment. Falk Huettig’s research investigates how cultural inventions, such as written language and generative AI, shape the mind and brain from early in life. Focusing on the Literate Brain, the Predictive Brain, and Language-Vision Interactions, it provides a window into how culture transforms cognition. The studies span diverse populations, such as illiterate adults in India, young children, individuals with reading disorders, and highly educated adults. They combine behavioural and electrophysiological measures, functional and structural neuroimaging, and computational modelling. Ultimately, this work asks: To what extent does culture determine what it means to think as a human?

Google Scholar Profile

Ten Representative Publications

Literacy:

  • Huettig, F. (2026). The Perks of Being a Bookworm. The Science of the Benefits of Reading. Cambridge University Press.
  • Araujo, S., Narang, V., Misra, D., Lohagun, N., Khan, O., Singh, A., Mishra, R. K., Hervais-Adelman, A., & Huettig, F. (2023). A literacy-related color-specific deficit in rapid automatized naming: Evidence from neurotypical completely illiterate and literate adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(8), 2403-2409.
  • Huettig, F., & Ferreira, F. (2023) The myth of normal reading. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(4), 863-870.
  • Van Paridon, J., Ostarek, M., Arunkumar, M., & Huettig, F. (2021). Does neuronal recycling result in destructive competition? The influence of learning to read on the recognition of faces. Psychological Science, 32, 459-465.
  • Fernandes, T., Arunkumar, M., & Huettig, F. (2021). The role of the written script in shaping mirror-image discrimination: Evidence from illiterate, Tamil literate, and Tamil-Latin-alphabet bi-literate adults. Cognition, 206: 104493.
  • Smith, A. C., Monaghan, P., & Huettig, F. (2021). The effect of orthographic systems on the developing reading system: Typological and computational analyses. Psychological Review, 128(1), 125-159.
  • Hervais-Adelman, A., Kumar, U., Mishra, R. K., Tripathi, V. N., Guleria, A., Singh, J. P., Eisner, F., & Huettig, F. (2019). Learning to read recycles visual cortical networks without destruction. Science Advances, 5(9): eaax0262. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax0262.
  • Huettig, F., & Pickering, M. (2019). Literacy advantages beyond reading: Prediction of spoken language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(6), 464-475.
  • Huettig, F., Lachmann, T., Reis, A., & Petersson, K. M. (2018). Distinguishing cause from effect – Many deficits associated with developmental dyslexia may be a consequence of reduced and suboptimal reading experience. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(3), 333-350.
  • Skeide, M. A., Kumar, U., Mishra, R. K., Tripathi, V. N., Guleria, A., Singh, J. P., Eisner, F., & Huettig, F. (2017). Learning to read alters cortico-subcortical crosstalk in the visual system of illiterates. Science Advances, 5(3): e1602612.

Ten Representative Publications: Prediction

  • Huettig, F. (2025). Looking Ahead: The New Science of the Predictive Mind. ISBN: 9781009245487. Cambridge University Press.
  • Huettig, F., Audring, J., & Jackendoff, R. (2022). A parallel architecture perspective on pre-activation and prediction in language processing. Cognition, 224:105050.
  • Onnis, L., Lim, A., Cheung, S., & Huettig, F. (2022). Is the mind inherently predicting? Exploring forward and backward looking in language processing. Cognitive Science, 46(10): e13201.
  • Huettig, F., & Guerra, E. (2019). Effects of speech rate, preview time of visual context, and participant instructions reveal strong limits on prediction in language processing. Brain Research, 1706, 196-208.
  • Mantegna, F., Hintz, F., Ostarek, M., Alday, P. M., & Huettig, F. (2019). Distinguishing integration and prediction accounts of ERP N400 modulations in language processing through experimental design. Neuropsychologia, 134: 107199.
  • Nieuwland, M. S., Politzer-Ahles, S., Heyselaar, E., Segaert, K., Darley, E., … & Huettig, F. (2018). Large-scale replication study reveals a limit on probabilistic prediction in language comprehension. eLife, 7: e33468. doi:10.7554/eLife.33468.
  • Hintz, F., Meyer, A. S., & Huettig, F. (2017). Predictors of verb-mediated anticipatory eye movements in the visual world. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 43(9), 1352-1374.
  • Huettig, F., & Janse, E. (2016). Individual differences in working memory and processing speed predict anticipatory spoken language processing in the visual world. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 31(1), 80-93.
  • Huettig, F., & Mani, N. (2016). Is prediction necessary to understand language? Probably not. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 31(1), 19-31.
  • Huettig, F. (2015). Four central questions about prediction in language processing. Brain Research, 1626, 118-135.

Ten Representative Publications: Language & Vision

  • Huettig, F., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2025). Rethinking task importance in the visual world paradigm. Brain Research, 1867: 149965.
  • Ostarek, M., & Huettig, F. (2019). Six challenges for embodiment research.Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(6), 593-599.
  • Ostarek, M., Joosen, D., Ishag, A., De Nijs, M., & Huettig, F. (2019). Are visual processes causally involved in “perceptual simulation” effects in the sentence-picture verification task? Cognition, 182, 84-94.
  • Smith, A. C., Monaghan, P., & Huettig, F. (2017). The multimodal nature of spoken word processing in the visual world: Testing the predictions of alternative models of multimodal integration. Journal of Memory and Language, 93, 276-303.
  • Ostarek, M., & Huettig, F. (2017). Spoken words can make the invisible visible – Testing the involvement of low-level visual representations in spoken word processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43, 499-508.
  • De Groot, F., Huettig, F., & Olivers, C. N. L. (2016). When meaning matters: The temporal dynamics of semantic influences on visual attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42(2), 180-196.
  • Mani, N., Johnson, E., McQueen, J. M., & Huettig, F. (2013). How yellow is your banana? Toddlers’ language-mediated visual search in referent-present tasks. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1036-1044.
  • Huettig, F., Olivers, C. N. L., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). Looking, language, and memory: Bridging research from the visual world and visual search paradigms. Acta Psychologica, 137, 138-150.
  • Huettig, F., & Altmann, G. (2011). Looking at anything that is green when hearing ‘frog’: How object surface colour and stored object colour knowledge influence language-mediated overt attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(1), 122-145.
  • Huettig, F., & McQueen, J. M. (2007). The tug of war between phonological, semantic and shape information in language-mediated visual search. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(4), 460-482.  
  • Huettig, F., & Altmann, G. T. M. (2005). Word meaning and the control of eye fixation: Semantic competitor effects and the visual world paradigm. Cognition, 96(1), B23-B32.