Perceiving, remembering, and communicating structure in events.
Abstract
How do people perceive routine events, such as making a bed, as these events unfold in time? Research on knowledge structures suggests that people conceive of events as goal-directed partonomic hierarchies. Here, participants segmented videos of events into coarse and fine units on separate viewings; some described the activity of each unit as well. Both segmentation and descriptions support the hierarchical bias hypothesis in event perception: Observers spontaneously encoded the events in terms of partonomic hierarchies. Hierarchical organization was strengthened by simultaneous description and, to a weaker extent, by familiarity. Describing from memory rather than perception yielded fewer units but did not alter the qualitative nature of the descriptions. Although the descriptions were telegraphic and without communicative intent, their hierarchical structure was evident to naive readers. The data suggest that cognitive schemata mediate between perceptual and functional information about events and indicate that these knowledge structures may be organized around object/action units.
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Behavioral studies show that subjects can segment events into a nested hierarchy from coarse to fine timescales.
“Behavioral studies have shown that subjects can segment events into a nested hierarchy from coarse to fine timescales (Kurby & Zacks, 2008; Zacks, Tversky, & Iyer, 2001)”
From Discovering Event Structure in Continuous Narrative Perception and Memory (2017) · cites this paper as Zacks, Tversky, & Iyer, 2001
Behavioral experiments have shown that long-term memory reflects event structure during encoding.
“Behavioral experiments have shown that long-term memory reflects event structure during encoding (Ezzyat & Davachi, 2011; Sargent et al., 2013; Zacks, Tversky, et al., 2001).”
From Discovering Event Structure in Continuous Narrative Perception and Memory (2017) · cites this paper as Zacks, Tversky, et al., 2001
Event Segmentation Theory holds that segmentation is automatic, operates at multiple scales, and is triggered by salient changes in time, space, objects or characters, goals, or causality.
“Event Segmentation Theory (EST) [52] holds that segmentation is automatic [53], operates at multiple scales [6], and is triggered by salient changes in time, space, objects or characters, goals, or causality [6].”
From HingeMem: Boundary Guided Long-Term Memory with Query Adaptive Retrieval for Scalable Dialogues (2026) · cites this paper as [53]
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- Authors
- Zacks, J. M., Tversky, B., & Iyer, G.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Published
- 2001
- Volume
- 130
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 29-58
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W2011605810
- Semantic Scholar
- 2613e934022204b91d7b60ff407eb4d72c4cb341
- Cited by
- 640
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 22.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Keywords
- event perception, hierarchy, video segmentation, familiarity, cognitive schemas, knowledge structure
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, California, Communication, Decision Making, Humans, Leisure Activities, Memory, Models, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Perception, Videotape Recording, Cognitive Science
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