Event Title
Perception of Social Events
Presentation Type
Poster/Portfolio
Presenter Major(s)
Psychology
Mentor Information
Christopher Kurby
Department
Psychology
Location
Kirkhof Center KC45
Start Date
10-4-2013 3:00 PM
End Date
10-4-2013 4:00 PM
Keywords
Social Science
Abstract
Previous research has shown that people break up, or segment, the hierarchy of goals in human behavior into discrete events. The current study expands this literature by investigating how people perceive events in a social context. We were also interested in how variables like grain size (large vs. small events) and type of personality may influence the segmentation of social events. Participants were asked to view short films of two people engaging in everyday activities. While watching the movies, they were asked to indicate the points when one activity ended and another began (i.e., segmenting the movies into events). After each film, the participants were asked to complete a recall task by typing the events that occurred in the film, and last, to complete a personality questionnaire. The movies were coded for changes in nonsocial and social actions of the actor. We found that changes in both social and nonsocial actions significantly predicted event segmentation behavior.
Perception of Social Events
Kirkhof Center KC45
Previous research has shown that people break up, or segment, the hierarchy of goals in human behavior into discrete events. The current study expands this literature by investigating how people perceive events in a social context. We were also interested in how variables like grain size (large vs. small events) and type of personality may influence the segmentation of social events. Participants were asked to view short films of two people engaging in everyday activities. While watching the movies, they were asked to indicate the points when one activity ended and another began (i.e., segmenting the movies into events). After each film, the participants were asked to complete a recall task by typing the events that occurred in the film, and last, to complete a personality questionnaire. The movies were coded for changes in nonsocial and social actions of the actor. We found that changes in both social and nonsocial actions significantly predicted event segmentation behavior.