Understanding Events : From Perception to Action

"Event knowledge lies at the heart of much of cognition and perception. But the very definition of an eventanything that happens, as Shipley and Zacks writeis so sweeping as to pose a challenge to our understanding of events. This collection meets that challenge with an extraordinarily comprehensive and in depth treatment of event knowledge. The most current work on the development, perception, representation, and memory of events is described by leading researchers in the field. This is an exciting and important book."--Jeffrey L. Elman, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego "This book is courageous: it is a highly ambitious and successful exploration of what it means to acknowledge that humans perceive and produce events, rather than simply processing sensory snapshots and carrying out motor reactions. Understanding Events provides all the information necessary, with insightful and stimulating conceptual, behavioral, functional, and neuroscientific analyses, to resolve numerous unfruitful controversies, such as between nativists and empiricists or constructivists and ecologists."--Bernhard Hommel, Head of Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University "This wonderful book heralds the opening of a research frontier that is both fascinating and important. Chapter after chapter, the book lays out a largely unexplored research agenda, which many will want to make their own. The range of disciplines represented in the book--cognitive psychology, neuroscience, motor control, perception and memory research, computer science, philosophy and linguistics--gives a hint of the broad multi-disciplinary approach that will be required if we are to fulfill Shipley and Zacks' invitation to understand events."--Robert Sekuler, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brandeis University "The goals of this volume are both simple and audacious--to distill what is currently known about how people understand events, and by so doing provide a new framework for research on event perception (and cognition). These goals lead the editors to sample comprehensively across cognitive science, from philosophy, to linguistics, to experimental psychology, to development and cognitive neuroscience. Each chapter delivers innovative analyses from within one or more of these perspectives, and together they highlight broad points of convergence as well as deep debates. Readers from across these diverse fields will find fuel for new conceptualizations and new research in these pages."--Amanda Woodward, Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park "Understanding events lies at the heart of conscious cognition. Understanding event understanding requires nothing short of a concerted multidisciplinary effort. This remarkable collection of essays represents such an effort, spanning an intellectual spectrum that ranges from motor control to language acquisition, while weaving an impressively tight conceptual web. The volume will prove to be a treasure trove for seasoned and novice researchers alike."-- Rolf A. Zwaan, Professor of Biological and Cognitive Psychology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam