Event endings in memory and language

Memory is fundamental for comprehending and segmenting the flow of activity around us into units called “events”. Here, we investigate the effect of the movement dynamics of actions (ceased, ongoing) and the inner structure of events (with or without object-state change) on people's event memory. Furthermore, we investigate how describing events, and the meaning and form of verb predicates used (denoting a culmination moment, or not, in single verbs or verb-satellite constructions), affects event memory. Before taking a surprise recognition task, Spanish and Mandarin speakers (who lexicalise culmination in different verb predicate forms) watched short videos of events, either in a non-verbal (probe-recognition) or a verbal experiment (event description). Results show that culminated events (i.e. ceased change-of-state events) were remembered best across experiments. Language use showed to enhance memory overall. Further, the form of the verb predicates used for denoting culmination had a moderate effect on memory.记忆是将我们周遭的活动流理解并分割为称作“事件”的认知单元的核心要素。本研究旨在探讨动作的运动状态（终止、进行中）以及事件的内部结构（是否伴随客体状态变化）对人类事件记忆（event memory）的影响。此外，本研究还探究了事件描述方式，以及所使用的动词谓词（verb predicates）的意义与形式——无论是否表示终结时刻，可采用单个动词或动词-附语构式（verb-satellite constructions）——对事件记忆的影响。在完成意外再认任务（surprise recognition task）前，西班牙语使用者与普通话使用者（二者将终结时刻词汇化的动词谓词形式存在差异）观看了各类事件的短视频，实验分为非言语（探测再认，probe-recognition）范式与言语（事件描述）范式两类。实验结果显示，在所有实验范式中，终结性事件（即终止的状态变化事件）的记忆效果最佳。整体而言，言语使用能够提升记忆表现。进一步而言，用于表示终结时刻的动词谓词形式对记忆存在中等程度的影响。