• Bard College
  • Psychology Program
  • IRB
  • Internal

Memory Dynamics Lab

Justin C. Hulbert, Principal Investigator

  • People
    • Principal investigator
    • Lab management
    • Senior project students
    • Research assistants
    • Alumni/Alumnae
  • Research
    • Overview
    • Publications
  • Courses
    • Intro to psychological science (PSY141)
    • Learning & memory (PSY 234)
    • Advanced methodology (PSY COG): Memory Dynamics Lab
    • Sleep! seminar (PSY 353)
    • The medial temporal lobe memory system (PSY 330)
    • Cognitive psychology (PSY 230)
    • Design & analysis I (PSY 201)
    • Research methods in psychology (PSY 204)
    • Neuroscience (PSY 231)
    • Mind, Brain, & Behavior seminar (MBB317)
    • Science of forgetting (PSY 335)
  • Get Involved!
    • Participate
    • Research experience
    • Get in touch
You are here: Home / Research / Publications / Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements

Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements

Papafragou, A., Hulbert, J. C., & Trueswell, J. (2008). Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements. Cognition, 108(1), 155-184.

Abstract: Languages differ in how they encode motion. When describing bounded motion, English speakers typically use verbs that convey information about manner (e.g., slide, skip, walk) rather than path (e.g., approach, ascend), whereas Greek speakers do the opposite. We investigated whether this strong cross-language difference influences how people allocate attention during motion perception. We compared eye movements from Greek and English speakers as they viewed motion events while (a) preparing verbal descriptions or (b) memorizing the events. During the verbal description task, speakers’ eyes rapidly focused on the event components typically encoded in their native language, generating significant cross-language differences even during the first second of motion onset. However, when freely inspecting ongoing events, as in the memorization task, people allocated attention similarly regardless of the language they speak. Differences between language groups arose only after the motion stopped, such that participants spontaneously studied those aspects of the scene that their language does not routinely encode in verbs. These findings offer a novel perspective on the relation between language and perceptual/cognitive processes. They indicate that attention allocation during event perception is not affected by the perceiver’s native language; effects of language arise only when linguistic forms are recruited to achieve the task, such as when committing facts to memory. »PDF

A Place to Think

Lab Mission

The Memory Dynamics Lab, part of the Psychology Program at Bard College, works to harness the mechanisms responsible for adaptively retrieving, consolidating, and forgetting memories through cognitive neuroscience (including the study of human brainwaves and behavior while awake and asleep). In doing so, we aim to distill and disseminate strategies designed to help learners capitalize on these mental operations, allowing them to better remember when/what they want to remember and forget when/what they want to forget.

Memory Dynamics Lab

Mailing Address

Justin Hulbert, Ph.D.
Bard College
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000

Contact Us

(p): 845.752.4390
(e): [email protected]

Related Links

»CompMem Lab
»Memory Control Lab
»Context Lab
»BAP Lab

  • People
  • Research
  • Courses
  • Get Involved!

Copyright © 2025 · Education Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in