Entities in the spatial domain (objects) and the temporal domain (events) are characterized by parallel distinctions that are supported by a shared notion of individuation that runs across domains. This work investigates whether conceptual considerations of individuation are language-independent. We test speakers of English, which uses count-mass syntax and telicity to mark linguistic individuals in the nominal and verbal domain respectively, and Mandarin, which lacks these linguistic features. Our results throw light onto the nature of entity categories in the human mind: both English-speaking and Mandarin-speaking viewers process individuated and non-individuated entities differently, with only the former having a well-defined (temporal/spatial) structure with integrally-ordered, distinct parts. Crucially, these features of non-linguistic individuation are conceptualized in similar ways cross-linguistically and are potentially universal.

Source-goal events involve an object moving from the Source to the Goal. In this work, we focus on the representation of the object, which has received relatively less attention in the study of Source-goal events. Specifically, this study aims to investigate the mapping between language and mental representations of object locations in transfer-of-possession events (e.g. throwing, giving). We investigate two different grammatical factors that may influence the representation of object location in transfer-of-possession events: (a) grammatical aspect (e.g. threw vs. was throwing) and (b) verb semantics (guaranteed transfer, e.g. give vs. no guaranteed transfer, e.g. throw). We conducted a visual-world eye-tracking study using a novel webcam-based eye-tracking paradigm (Webgazer; Papoutsaki et al., 2016) to investigate how grammatical aspect and verb semantics in the linguistic input guide the real-time and final representations of object locations. We show that grammatical cues guide the real-time and final representations of object locations.

Languages vary in the ways they package the conceptual components of motion events into verbs. In a series of experiments, we examined the use of event-general conceptual categories of MANNER and RESULT during verb learning. We tested the accessibility of these concepts within and across domains of spontaneous motion and caused motion events, in speakers of typologically different languages (English and Spanish). Our results indicate that learners can adapt new lexicalization biases that may differ from those present in their own native language, and generalize them to novel instances of the same class of verbs. Furthermore, our data also indicate that under certain contexts, learners can transfer these newly learned biases to a different event domain, suggesting that event-general conceptual categories are psychologically available to learners.

Humans are surrounded by dynamic, continuous streams of stimuli, yet the human mind segments these stimuli and organizes them into discrete event units. Theories of language production assume that segmenting and construing an event provides a starting point for speaking about the event (Levelt, 1989; Konopka & Brown-Schmidt, 2018). However, the precise units of event representation and their mapping to language remain elusive. In this work, we examine event unit formation in linguistic and conceptual event representations. Given cross-linguistic differences in motion event encoding (satellite vs. verb-framed languages), we investigate the extent to which such differences in forming linguistic motion event units affect how speakers of different languages form cognitive event units in non-linguistic tasks. We test English (satellite-framed) and Turkish (verb-framed) speakers on verbal and non-verbal motion event tasks. Our results show that speakers do not rely on the same event unit representations when verbalizing motion vs. identifying motion event units in non-verbal tasks. Therefore, we suggest that conceptual and linguistic event representations are related but distinct levels of event structure.

The physical world provides humans with continuous streams of experience in both space and time. The human mind, however, can parse and organize this continuous input into discrete, individual units. In this work, we characterize the representational signatures of basic units of human experience across the spatial (object) and the temporal (event) domains. We propose that there are three shared, abstract signatures of individuation underlying the basic units of representation across the two domains. Specifically, individuals in both the spatial domain (objects) and temporal domain (bounded events) resist restructuring, have distinct parts, and do not tolerate breaks; non-canonical individuals in both the spatial domain (substances) and the temporal domain (unbounded events) lack these features. In a series of experiments, we confirm these principles and discuss their significance for cognitive and linguistic theories of objects and events.

In this work, we examine event unit formation in conceptual and linguistic event representations. Given typological differences in motion event encoding (satellite vs. verb-framed languages), we investigate to what extent cross-linguistic differences in the linguistic encoding and unit formation of motion events affect how speakers form cognitive event units in a non-linguistic task. We test English (satellite-framed language) and Turkish (verb-framed language) speakers on verbal and non-verbal event segmentation tasks. Our results show that when verbalizing information in the context of event unit formation based on visually presented input, and identifying event boundaries in a non-verbal task by means of a button press task, speakers do not rely on the same event representations. Therefore, we suggest a lack of a homology between conceptual and linguistic event representations in situations where speech planning is not required.

How do learners acquire the meanings of nouns? Given the complex linguistic and non-linguistic input present in the learning environment, how do learners identify the concepts denoted by nouns? In other words, how does a learner map the input language to non-linguistic concepts? In the current study, we focus on the case of mass-count language and physical entities (e.g., objects and substances). We conduct novel word extension experiments to investigate whether conceptual and linguistic factors universally affect label extension to previously unseen entities in languages that do and do not have a grammatical mass-count distinction (Experiment 1: English; Experiment 2: Korean, respectively). We find that objecthood and linguistic (count/mass) context both modulate how speakers extend labels to structurally disrupted novel entities.

Events are a fundamental part of human experience. Research on event cognition is rapidly developing and is revealing central aspects of how humans perceive, conceptualize, communicate about, and remember events. This symposium offers an interdisciplinary look at recent advances in the study of event cognition. The symposium brings together cognitive scientists from across continents, who are experts on the subject. The symposium contributors come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines in developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, neuro-computational psychology, and linguistics. They combine a variety of innovative and integrative approaches and methodologies and study diverse populations across the lifespan and across languages. The overall goal of this symposium is to foster an interdisciplinary conversation on different aspects of event cognition.