Events
People
Everyday events such as making a bed or assembling a saxophone are represented hierarchically. Event segmentation and description indicate that the higher level is punctuated by separate objects or large object parts and the lower level is segmented by separate actions on those objects. (Zacks, Tversky, and Iyer, 2001; Zacks and Tversky, 2001). Just as for objects, where perceptual salience gives clues to part segmentation and to functional significance, so for events. Ongoing research is showing that new segments seem to be cued by large perceptual changes (for feet, stopping/changing direction; for hands, object contact) that are correlated with changes in goals and subgoals (Martin and Tversky, 2003, submitted; Martin, Tversky, and others, in progress).