Literature and event understanding

We believe that the scientific study of narrative comprehension will move from using short, laboratory-contrived “textoids” to longer, naturalistic narratives. This move is being driven by technological developments and by theoretical interest in event comprehension mechanisms in reading. One mechanism in which we have been particularly interested is event segmentation, which is the spontaneous organization of incoming information into meaningful discrete events. Behavioral and neurophysiological studies suggest that similar principles govern event segmentation in reading and in the perception of movies and live action. Some of these studies contribute to a growing body of evidence that readers mentally simulate events as they read, including some of their perceptual and motor properties. Based on these trends we look forward to a scientific study of narrative comprehension that is increasingly integrated with broad general theories of perception and memory.

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A nested cortical hierarchy of neural states underlies event segmentation in the human brain

10.1101/2021.02.05.429165 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Linda Geerligs ◽

Marcel van Gerven ◽

Karen L. Campbell ◽

Umut Güçlü

Keyword(s):

Brain Regions ◽

Data Driven ◽

Fundamental Aspect ◽

Segmentation Method ◽

Discrete Events ◽

Event Segmentation ◽

Temporal Pole ◽

Cortical Hierarchy ◽

State Boundaries ◽

Anterior Temporal Pole

AbstractA fundamental aspect of human experience is that it is segmented into discrete events. This may be underpinned by transitions between distinct neural states. Using an innovative data-driven state segmentation method, we investigate how neural states are organized across the cortical hierarchy and where in cortex neural state and perceived event boundaries overlap. Our results show that neural state boundaries are organized in a temporal cortical hierarchy, with short states in primary sensory regions and long states in anterior temporal pole and lateral and medial prefrontal cortex. Neural state boundaries overlap with event boundaries across large parts of this hierarchy. State boundaries are shared within and between groups of brain regions that resemble well known functional networks, such as the default mode network that fractionates into two subnetworks – one fast, one slow. Together these findings suggest that a nested cortical hierarchy of neural states forms the basis of event segmentation.

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Postscript

10.1093/oso/9780190695262.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

J.P. Telotte

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Science And Technology ◽

Film And Television ◽

Space Race ◽

Animated Films ◽

Technological Developments ◽

Instrumental Works ◽

The Impact ◽

Live Action

The postscript surveys a number of changes that can be found in the key SF memes and their treatment as animation moved into postwar film and television. It frames these alterations in terms of a question that is often asked about cartoons: whether they are simply harmless amusements or “instrumental” works that can motivate their audiences after the fashion that, many argue, the best SF literature does. The chapter chronicles a variety of postwar scientific and technological developments that would quickly appear in and become staples of both live-action and animated films, including rockets, robots, computers, and the space race. The popularity of these elements demonstrates the postwar persistence of the SF memes explored in the previous chapters and suggests how animation was working, much like SF literature, not only to familiarize audiences with the impact of science and technology, but also to make that impact less threatening and more acceptable to popular culture.

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Neural event segmentation of continuous experience in human infants

10.1101/2021.06.16.448755 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tristan S Yates ◽

Lena J Skalaban ◽

Cameron T Ellis ◽

Angelika J Bracher ◽

Christopher Baldassano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sensory Input ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Discrete Events ◽

Human Infants ◽

Event Segmentation ◽

Neural Event ◽

One Year ◽

The Stability ◽

High Level ◽

The Brain

Although sensory input is continuous, we perceive and remember discrete events. Event segmentation has been studied extensively in adults, but little is known about how the youngest minds experience the world. The main impediment to studying event segmentation in infants has been a reliance on explicit parsing tasks that are not possible at this age. fMRI has recently proven successful at measuring adult event segmentation during task-free, naturalistic perception. Applied to infants, this could reveal the nature of their event segmentation, from low-level sensory transients to high-level cognitive boundaries. We collected fMRI data from 25 adults and 25 infants less than one year of age watching the same short movie. Neural events were defined by the stability of voxel activity patterns. In adults, we replicated a hierarchical gradient of event timescales, from shorter events in early visual regions to longer events in later visual and narrative regions. In infants, however, longer events were found throughout the brain, including in a second dataset. Infant event structure fit adult data and vice versa, but adult behavioral boundaries were differently expressed in adult and infant brains. These findings have implications for the nature of infant experience and cognition.

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Eye Movements Reveal the Influence of Event Structure on Reading Behavior

10.31234/osf.io/h5c2j ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Ben Swets ◽

Christopher Anthony Kurby

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Memory Load ◽

Event Structure ◽

Discrete Events ◽

Narrative Texts ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Reading Behavior ◽

Online Data ◽

Event Segmentation ◽

Event Boundary

When we read narrative texts such as novels and newspaper articles, we segment information presented in such texts into discrete events, with distinct boundaries between those events. But do our eyes reflect this event structure while reading? This study examines whether eye movements during the reading of discourse reveal how readers respond online to event structure. Participants read narrative passages as we monitored their eye movements. Several measures revealed that event structure predicted eye movements. In two experiments, we found that both early and over- all reading times were longer for event boundaries. We also found that regressive saccades were more likely to land on event boundaries, but that readers were less likely to regress out of an event boundary. Experiment 2 also demonstrated that tracking event structure carries a working memory load. Eye movements provide a rich set of online data to test the cognitive reality of event segmentation during reading.

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Confronting the grey zone after severe brain injury

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190115 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 707-711 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrew Peterson ◽

Adrian M. Owen

Keyword(s):

Brain Injury ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Vegetative State ◽

Clinical Care ◽

Grey Zone ◽

Severe Brain Injury ◽

New Methods ◽

Legal Decision Making ◽

Technological Developments ◽

The Brain

In recent years, rapid technological developments in the field of neuroimaging have provided several new methods for revealing thoughts, actions and intentions based solely on the pattern of activity that is observed in the brain. In specialized centres, these methods are now being employed routinely to assess residual cognition, detect consciousness and even communicate with some behaviorally non-responsive patients who clinically appear to be comatose or in a vegetative state. In this article, we consider some of the ethical issues raised by these developments and the profound implications they have for clinical care, diagnosis, prognosis and medical-legal decision-making after severe brain injury.

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International Association for the Scientific Study ofIntellectual DisabilitiesNew Millenium: Research to PracticeSeattle, Washington, USA, August 1–6 2000

Journal of Intellectual Disability Research ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2788.2000.00282.x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 187

Keyword(s):

International Association ◽

Scientific Study

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Deficits in Selective Attention Alter Gait in Frail Older Adults

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000137 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 29-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Véronique Cornu ◽

Jean-Paul Steinmetz ◽

Carine Federspiel

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Nursing Home ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Dual Task ◽

Nursing Home Residents ◽

Gait Rehabilitation ◽

Rehabilitation Programs ◽

Gait Parameters ◽

Growing Body ◽

Task Conditions

Abstract. A growing body of research demonstrates an association between gait disorders, falls, and attentional capacities in older adults. The present work empirically analyzes differences in gait parameters in frail institutionalized older adults as a function of selective attention. Gait analysis under single- and dual-task conditions as well as selective attention measures were collected from a total of 33 nursing-home residents. We found that differences in selective attention performances were related to the investigated gait parameters. Poorer selective attention performances were associated with higher stride-to-stride variabilities and a slowing of gait speed under dual-task conditions. The present findings suggest a contribution of selective attention to a safe gait. Implications for gait rehabilitation programs are discussed.

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How Do People Share Their Positive Events?

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000212 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. 250-259 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Cara A. Palmer ◽

Meagan A. Ramsey ◽

Jennifer N. Morey ◽

Amy L. Gentzler

Keyword(s):

Cluster Analysis ◽

Communication Technology ◽

Big Five ◽

Well Being ◽

Big Five Personality Traits ◽

Big Five Personality ◽

Positive Events ◽

Growing Body ◽

Sharing Patterns ◽

Practical Implications

Abstract. Research suggests that sharing positive events with others is beneficial for well-being, yet little is known about how positive events are shared with others and who is most likely to share their positive events. The current study expanded on previous research by investigating how positive events are shared and individual differences in how people share these events. Participants (N = 251) reported on their likelihood to share positive events in three ways: capitalizing (sharing with close others), bragging (sharing with someone who may become jealous or upset), and mass-sharing (sharing with many people at once using communication technology) across a range of positive scenarios. Using cluster analysis, five meaningful profiles of sharing patterns emerged. These profiles were associated with gender, Big Five personality traits, narcissism, and empathy. Individuals who tended to brag when they shared their positive events were more likely to be men, reported less agreeableness, less conscientiousness, and less empathy, whereas those who tended to brag and mass-share reported the highest levels of narcissism. These results have important theoretical and practical implications for the growing body of research on sharing positive events.

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