Includes bibliographical references.

Note on Supplementary Material -- Preface by the Series Editor -- Preface by the Author -- About the Author -- 1 The Importance of Events in Conception and Language -- 2 The Structure and Format of Event Representations -- 3 Event Segmentation Theory and the Segmentation of Visual Events -- 4 The Segmentation of Narrative Events -- 5 Neural Correlates of Event Segmentation -- 6 Prediction in Event Comprehension -- 7 Updating Event Models -- 8 The Event Horizon Model and Long-Term Memory -- 9 Event Cognition in Aging and Early Alzheimer’s Disease -- 10 Event Representations from Cinema and Narrative Fiction -- Bibliography -- About the Series Editor -- Websites for Cognitive Linguistics and CIFCL Speakers.

The representation of events is a central topic for cognitive science. In this series of lectures, Jeffrey M. Zacks situates event representations and their role in language within a theory of perception and memory. Event representations have a distinctive structure and format that result from computational and neural mechanisms operating during perception and language comprehension. A crucial aspect of the mechanisms is that event representations are updated to optimize their predictive utility. This updating has consequences for action control and for long-term memory. Event cognition changes across the adult lifespan and can be impaired by conditions including Alzheimer’s disease. These mechanisms have broad impact on everyday activity, and have shaped the development of media such as cinema and narrative fiction.