Everyday experience is divided into meaningful events as a part of human perception. Current accounts of this process, known as event segmentation, focus on how characteristics of the experience (e.g., situation changes) influence segmentation. However, characteristics of the viewers themselves have been largely neglected. We test whether one such viewer characteristic, their cultural background, impacts online event segmentation. Culture could impact event segmentation (1) by emphasizing different aspects of experiences as being important for comprehension, memory, and communication, and (2) by providing different exemplars of how everyday activities are performed, which objects are likely to be used, and how scenes are laid out. Indian and US viewers (N = 152) identified events in everyday activities (e.g., making coffee) recorded in Indian and US settings. Consistent with their cultural preference for analytical processing, US viewers segmented the activities into more events than did Indian viewers. Furthermore, event boundaries identified by US viewers were more strongly associated with visual changes, whereas boundaries identified by Indian viewers were more strongly associated with goal changes. There was no evidence that familiarity with an activity impacted segmentation. Thus, culture impacts event perception by altering the types of information people prioritize when dividing experience into meaningful events.

日常体验被分为有意义的事件，作为人类感知的一部分。该过程的当前说明（称为事件细分）着重于体验特征（例如，情况变化）如何影响细分。然而，观众自身的特征在很大程度上被忽略了。我们测试了这种观看者特征，他们的文化背景是否会影响在线事件细分。文化可能会影响事件的细分（1）通过强调经验的不同方面对于理解，记忆和沟通很重要，（2）通过提供关于日常活动的执行方式，可能使用的对象以及使用方式的不同示例场景布置。印度和美国观众（N = 152）在印度和美国设置的日常活动中识别出的事件（例如，煮咖啡）。根据他们对分析处理的文化偏爱，美国观众将活动划分为比印度观众更多的活动。此外，美国观众确定的事件边界与视觉变化之间的关联更为紧密，而印度观众确定的事件边界与目标变化之间的关联更为紧密。没有证据表明对活动的熟悉会影响细分。因此，在将经验分为有意义的事件时，文化会通过改变人们优先考虑的信息类型来影响事件感知。