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. 2021 Jan;13(1):10-24.
doi: 10.1111/tops.12522. Epub 2020 Dec 4.

Event-Predictive Cognition: A Root for Conceptual Human Thought

Martin V Butz  1 , Asya Achimova  1 , David Bilkey  2 , Alistair Knott  3
Affiliations
Free article

Event-Predictive Cognition: A Root for Conceptual Human Thought

Martin V Butz et al. Top Cogn Sci. 2021 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Our minds navigate a continuous stream of sensorimotor experiences, selectively compressing them into events. Event-predictive encodings and processing abilities have evolved because they mirror interactions between agents and objects-and the pursuance or avoidance of critical interactions lies at the heart of survival and reproduction. However, it appears that these abilities have evolved not only to pursue live-enhancing events and to avoid threatening events, but also to distinguish food sources, to produce and to use tools, to cooperate, and to communicate. They may have even set the stage for the formation of larger societies and the development of cultural identities. Research on event-predictive cognition investigates how events and conceptualizations thereof are learned, structured, and processed dynamically. It suggests that event-predictive encodings and processes optimally mediate between sensorimotor processes and language. On the one hand, they enable us to perceive and control physical interactions with our world in a highly adaptive, versatile, goal-directed manner. On the other hand, they allow us to coordinate complex social interactions and, in particular, to comprehend and produce language. Event-predictive learning segments sensorimotor experiences into event-predictive encodings. Once first encodings are formed, the mind learns progressively higher order compositional structures, which allow reflecting on the past, reasoning, and planning on multiple levels of abstraction. We conclude that human conceptual thought may be grounded in the principles of event-predictive cognition constituting its root.

Keywords: Action events; Anticipatory behavior; Bayesian brain; Cognitive ontogeny; Event segmentation theory; Natural language processing; Predictive coding; Theory of event coding.

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References

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Papers in this Topic
    1. Baldwin, D. A., & Kosie, J. E. (2021). How does the mind render streaming experience as events? Topics in Cognitive Science, 13, 79-105.
    1. Bilkey, D. K., & Jensen, C. (2021). Neural markers of event boundaries. Topics in Cognitive Science, 13, 128-131.
    1. Butz, M. V., Achimova, A., Bilkey, D., & Knott, A. (2021). Editors’ review and introduction: Event-predictive cognition: From sensorimotor via conceptual to language-based structures and processes. Topics in Cognitive Science, 13, 10-24.
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