Events as intersecting object histories: A new theory of event representation.

Abstract

We offer a new account of event representation based on those aspects of object representation that encode an object s history, and which convey the distinct states that an object has experienced across time-minimally reflecting the before and after of whatever changes the object undergoes as an event unfolds. Our intention is to account for the content of event representations. For an event that can be described as the chef chopped the onion, the event as a whole is defined by the changes in state and location, across time, of the onion, the chef, and any instruments that (might have) mediated the interaction between the chef and the onion. Thus, we maintain that events are encoded as ensembles of intersecting object histories in which one or more objects change state. Our approach requires not just the distinction between object types and object tokens, but also between tokens and token-states (e.g., between that specific onion and its different states before, during, and after the chopping). These distinctions require an account of how object tokens are represented within the context of episodic and semantic memory, and how distinct object states are bound into a single object identity. We shall argue that the theoretical pieces, and their neural instantiation, are in place to develop a unified account of event representation in which such representation is simply a consequence of the mechanism for generating object tokens, their histories, and the binding of one to the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).