Typing to the beat of inner speech: The embodied representation of speech prosody in keystroke rhythmic patterns.

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated whether inner speech reflects an embodied representation by examining whether prosodic features of spoken sentences, specifically tempo and pitch, affect motor behavior during typing.

Method: Across two experiments, participants listened to sentences varying in structure and emotional tone, silently repeated them, and then typed them. Acoustic features (tempo and pitch) were extracted from the spoken sentences. During typing, motor measures, including typing speed and key pressure, were recorded.

Results: We found that spoken word duration robustly predicted mean interkey interval (Experiment 1: β = 113.183, p < .001; Experiment 2: β = 95.857, p < .001). In practical terms, this corresponds to approximately an additional ∼11 ms (Experiment 1) or ∼10 ms (Experiment 2) in mean interkeystroke interval for every 0.1 s increase in spoken word duration. In the emotional manipulation, pitch predicted typing pressure (β = 0.586, p < .001). Overall, faster tempo was associated with shorter spoken words, and pressure covaried weakly with prosodic prominence in line with the auditory materials. These converging findings are consistent with the idea that covert speech simulations can preserve prosodic detail and that this detail can be expressed in typing dynamics; however, the present design is correlational and does not establish causality. In both experiments, typing speed was jointly predicted by speech tempo and sentence length. In emotionally intoned sentences, higher acoustic pitch was associated with increased typing pressure.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that inner speech may preserve prosodic features of spoken language and that these features can covary with motor output during typing. The results are consistent with an embodied/grounded account in which covert speech engages sensorimotor systems, but the present paradigm does not isolate a causal role for inner speech. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).