Causal Reasoning and Event Cognition as Evolutionary Determinants of Language Structure

The aim of this article is to provide an evolutionarily grounded explanation of central aspects of the structure of language. It begins with an account of the evolution of human causal reasoning. A comparison between humans and non-human primates suggests that human causal cognition is based on reasoning about the underlying forces that are involved in events, while other primates hardly understand external forces. This is illustrated by an analysis of the causal cognition required for early hominin tool use. Second, the thinking concerning forces in causation is used to motivate a model of human event cognition. A mental representation of an event contains two vectors representing a cause as well as a result but also entities such as agents, patients, instruments and locations. The fundamental connection between event representations and language is that declarative sentences express events (or states). The event structure also explains why sentences are constituted of noun phrases and verb phrases. Finally, the components of the event representation show up in language, where causes and effects are expressed by verbs, agents and patients by nouns (modified by adjectives), locations by prepositions, etc. Thus, the evolution of the complexity of mental event representations also provides insight into the evolution of the structure of language.

A cause for celebration! A psychographic typology of attendees at a benefit concert

Purpose This exploratory study aims to show that events can create awareness and facilitate behavioural change among attendees. Festivals and events can use the United Nations sustainable development goals as drivers of societal change and business growth. Unfortunately, the attendees to a benefit concert have not been investigated to date. This study fills this gap by segmenting attendees to a benefit concert aimed at eradicating poverty. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative destination-based survey was undertaken at the Mandela 100: Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2018. A simple random sampling method was used within a stratified sampling method, and 408 questionnaires were obtained. Findings Three psychographic segmentation variables were used: motives for attending the event (novelty, escape and socialization and cause advocating); behavioural intentions and change as a result of attending the event (cognition and awareness, loyalty-related behaviour, active engagement and travel-related behaviour); and global causes aimed at eradicating poverty that attendees regard as important to support (social, sustainability, fiscal, fundamental and elevated prosperity). The results revealed three distinct segments, proposing that an AID-typology applies to benefit concert attendees: advocates, inspirers and discoverers. Each group has either a high, moderate or low level of commitment towards the festival’s and other global causes. Practical implications Practical implications are suggested as guidelines to encourage advocacy and active involvement for global causes. Originality/value This study was conducted from a developing country’s perspective and contextualizes the role that events can play in advocating for specific causes and encouraging citizens to get involved.

EXPRESS: Encoding and Referent Event Influence on Retrospective Memory

Previous work from our lab has shown that event structure can influence memory performance. Our work in prospective memory has shown that, consistent with an event model view, performance is better when multiple encoding events refer to a common retrieval event. The aim of the current study was to assess the generality of this influence of event model structure on memory by using two retrospective memory tasks. This was done using lists of sentences (Experiment 1) and narrative texts (Experiment 2). The results of these retrospective memory tasks replicated that of the prospective memory task, and are most consistent with an event cognition account. These results also suggest that encoding and referent event structures may impact some levels of representation (e.g., the surface form) more than others (e.g., the textbase and event model). Overall, we demonstrate that event structure has principled influences on memory apart from the nature of the materials or the task. Moreover, we discuss how these findings are inconsistent with more traditional theories of memory processing, such as associative interference and spreading activation accounts.

Mapping the organization and dynamics of the posterior medial network during movie watching

Brain regions within a posterior medial network (PMN) are characterized by sensitivity to episodic tasks, and they also demonstrate strong functional connectivity as part of the default network. Despite its cohesive structure, delineating the intranetwork organization and functional diversity of the PMN is crucial for understanding its contributions to multidimensional event cognition. Here, we probed functional connectivity of the PMN during movie watching to identify its pattern of connections and subnetwork functions in a split-sample replication of 136 participants. Consistent with prior findings of default network fractionation, we identified distinct PMN subsystems: a Ventral PM subsystem (retrosplenial cortex, parahippocampal cortex, posterior angular gyrus) and a Dorsal PM subsystem (medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, anterior angular gyrus). These subsystems were anchored by two complementary regions: Retrosplenial cortex mediated communication between parahippocampal cortex and the Dorsal PM system, and posterior cingulate cortex mediated communication among Dorsal PM regions. Finally, the distinction between PMN subsystems is functionally relevant: whereas both Dorsal and Ventral PM connectivity tracked the movie content, only Ventral PM connections increased in strength at event transitions and appeared sensitive to episodic memory. Overall, these findings provide a model of PMN pathways and reveal distinct functional roles of intranetwork subsystems associated with event cognition.

Structuring memory through inference-based event segmentation

Although the stream of information we encounter is continuous, our experiences tend to be discretized into meaningful clusters, altering how we represent our past. Event segmentation theory proposes that clustering ongoing experience in this way is adaptive in that it promotes efficient online processing as well as later reconstruction of relevant information. A growing literature supports this theory by demonstrating its important behavioral consequences. Yet the exact mechanisms of segmentation remain elusive. Here, we provide a brief overview of how event segmentation influences ongoing processing, subsequent memory retrieval, and decision making as well as some proposed underlying mechanisms. We then explore how beliefs, or inferences, about what generates our experience may be the foundation of event cognition. In this inference‐based framework, experiences are grouped together according to what is inferred to have generated them. Segmentation then occurs when the inference changes, creating an event boundary. This offers an alternative to dominant theories of event segmentation, allowing boundaries to occur independent of perceptual change and even when transitions are predictable. We describe how this framework can reconcile seemingly contradictory empirical findings (e.g., memory can be biased toward both extreme episodes and the average of episodes). Finally, we discuss open questions regarding how time is incorporated into the inference process.

The Neurophysiology of Event Processing in Language and Visual Events

Events are a fundamental part of all actions that we undertake, discuss, and view. This chapter reviews the growing cognitive neuroscience literature exploring the structure and processing of tacit event knowledge. Overall, this work implies an ongoing process of building up semantic associations relative to their preceding context, which are constrained by active prediction of upcoming content. In turn, reanalysis mechanisms are initiated when the overall structure of the event is violated and/or does not conform to predictions set up by the context. Event cognition thus emerges from a network of conceptual information links with event-specific selectional restrictions and hierarchical organization. Altogether, this literature suggests that the brain uses overlapping mechanisms of comprehension to rapidly process events in both language and visual events.