Project description

Event perception and cognition theories assume dynamic events are segmented into meaningful chunks of sub-actions with partonomic relationships. This allows viewers to process streaming information in units and predict future states of action based on their expectations and event knowledge. Event models store relevant information for events and guide perception using schemas (or scripts). While event models hold immediately accessible representations stored in long-term memory, working event models process perceptual representations of unfolding activity throughout the event.

The studies of this project will shed light on whether event processing in working event models and long-term event schemas are modality-dependent. Considering that the grain of action leads to different levels of processing – with fine-grained events being aggregated into coarse-grained events – understanding modal and amodal representations of fine and coarse context will be important to the perceptual and conceptual organization of event comprehension.

Furthermore, this project will explore the role of confidence and metacognitive sensitivity in event cognition. Since sensory information is continuously processed at working event models to predict what will happen next, it is important to know if one’s cognition relies on the perception of event boundaries. Results obtained from metacognitive sensitivity measures will provide further evidence for the event models and their interactions with event schemata.

Lastly, this project will address whether event schemata influence the processing of events in general and whether repeated exposure to new events changes their cognition. However, the testing of these questions will be applied using visual and verbal events to observe modality-specific effects of different context grains (fine and coarse).

Cooperations

• Stephen Fleming (University College London, UK)
• Daniel T. Levin (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)