Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: According to the hierarchical encoding hypothesis, people segment observed behavior into units of action that are integrated into larger units across time.Study 1 tested this hypothesis by adapting techniques from studies of reading: participants watched a self-paced slideshow of an activity.Participants looked longer at slides corresponding to boundaries between action units than at slides within units.This time may reflect integration of information within that unit before processing the next.Supporting this possibility, time spent at boundaries between units increased more for coarse units of action than for fine units of action.Studies 2 and 3 suggested other reasons that looking time increases at unit boundaries: boundaries between actions correspond to noticeable discontinuities in the flow of action and are inherently more interesting to observers than other parts of an action sequence.
Authors: Bridgette Martin Hard, Gabriel Recchia
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2625504192