Components of Objects and Events

Components of events and processes

“…However, a closer examination of the stimuli used in the Rips and Estin (1998) study revealed that the difference in homogeneity might actually be due to a temporal aspect, rather than to physicality. Applying the distinction between events and processes provided by Vendler (1967), most of the stimuli used as "physical events" (e.g., checking out books, doing dishes, catching a plane) were truly events, but most of the "mental events" (e.g., dreaming, reading, imagining) would be more aptly classified as processes.…”

“…Experiments 1A and 1B of the present study empirically tested the possibility that the homogeneity differences between the mental and physical "events" in Rips and Estin's (1998) materials was in part due to a systematic difference in aspect. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 compared the effects of both physicality and aspect on homogeneity with the help of stimuli that varied both in physicality (physical vs. mental) and in temporal aspect (event vs. process).…”

“…As a consequence, each part of a mental event tends to be quite similar to the overall event; indeed, people typically regard both the part and the whole as belonging to the same superordinate category (Rips & Estin, 1998). For example, in Rips and Estin's study, reasoning is an instance of a mental event.…”

“…To test the homogeneity of physical and mental events empirically, Rips and Estin (1998) first collected typical parts from participants for a number of physical and mental events. For example, organizing may be a part of the mental event of planning, and getting an ID a part of the physical event of checking out books.…”

“…The tasks in Experiments 2, 3, and 4 were adapted from Rips and Estin's (1998) methodology. Experiment 2 investigated structural differences of the four different types of activity in terms of the numbers of temporal parts generated by participants.…”