Event Endings in Memory and Language

Paper accepted for publication in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

"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 or 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 lexicalize 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 the 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 event memory."

*For making use of the stimuli or using the data set for research purposes, please contact the authors.

该论文已被《语言、认知与神经科学》期刊接受发表。记忆对于我们理解并划分周围活动流为称为‘事件’的单元至关重要。在本研究中，我们探讨了动作（已停止或正在进行）的运动动力学以及事件（伴随或未伴随对象状态变化）的内在结构对人们事件记忆的影响。此外，我们还研究了描述事件以及所用动词谓词的意义和形式（表示单一动词或动词卫星结构中的终结时刻，或不表示终结时刻）如何影响事件记忆。在执行一个惊喜识别任务之前，西班牙语和普通话使用者（他们在不同动词谓词形式中分别实现终结的词汇化）观看了事件短片，这些短片要么是非语言的（探测识别）实验，要么是语言的（事件描述）实验。结果显示，终结事件（即状态变化停止的事件）在所有实验中记忆效果最佳。语言的使用总体上增强了记忆。进一步而言，用于表示终结的动词谓词的形式对事件记忆产生了中等程度的影响。如需使用刺激或数据集进行科研目的，请与作者联系。