People are more likely to use words they have heard recently in conversation

Zhang Y, Cai ZG. Perspective alignment in dialogue: The role of interlocutor's linguistic competence and communicative goals.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106526

Demonstrates that speakers tend to align their linguistic expressions with those used by their conversational partner.

ZHANG Y, Cai ZG. Perspective Alignment in Dialogue: The Role of Interlocutor's Linguistic Competence and Communicative Goals. 2026. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jx468_v3

Provides further evidence that speakers converge on lexical and communicative choices made by their interlocutors during dialogue.

Chen P, Guan H, Jeong EJ. Who Accommodates Whom? Bidirectional Linguistic Accommodation and Progressive Interpersonal Convergence in Human-AI Conversations.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050720

Shows that individuals adapt their linguistic structures and word choices toward those of their conversation partner over time.

Qiu Y, Ball LV, Gaskell MG, Ferguson HJ. Lexical alignment persists across a 12 h interval but is unaffected by sleep versus wake.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-33541-2

Utilizes a lexical alignment task demonstrating that participants reliably converge their word choices with words produced by a partner.