Our minds navigate a continuous stream of sensorimotor experiences, selectively compressing them into events. Event‐predictive encodings and processing abilities have evolved because they mirror interactions between agents and objects—and the pursuance or avoidance of critical interactions lies at the heart of survival and reproduction. However, it appears that these abilities have evolved not only to pursue live‐enhancing events and to avoid threatening events, but also to distinguish food sources, to produce and to use tools, to cooperate, and to communicate. They may have even set the stage for the formation of larger societies and the development of cultural identities. Research on event‐predictive cognition investigates how events and conceptualizations thereof are learned, structured, and processed dynamically. It suggests that event‐predictive encodings and processes optimally mediate between sensorimotor processes and language. On the one hand, they enable us to perceive and control physical interactions with our world in a highly adaptive, versatile, goal‐directed manner. On the other hand, they allow us to coordinate complex social interactions and, in particular, to comprehend and produce language. Event‐predictive learning segments sensorimotor experiences into event‐predictive encodings. Once first encodings are formed, the mind learns progressively higher order compositional structures, which allow reflecting on the past, reasoning, and planning on multiple levels of abstraction. We conclude that human conceptual thought may be grounded in the principles of event‐predictive cognition constituting its root.

中文翻译：

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事件预测认知：人类概念思维的根源

我们的思想在连续的感觉运动体验流中导航，有选择地将它们压缩成事件。事件预测编码和处理能力已经进化，因为它们反映了代理和对象之间的交互——而追求或避免关键交互是生存和繁殖的核心。然而，这些能力似乎不仅进化为追求改善生活的事件和避免威胁性事件，而且还用于区分食物来源、生产和使用工具、合作和交流。它们甚至可能为更大社会的形成和文化身份的发展奠定了基础。事件预测认知的研究调查了事件及其概念化是如何动态学习、结构化和处理的。它表明事件预测编码和过程在感觉运动过程和语言之间进行了最佳调解。一方面，它们使我们能够以高度适应性、通用性和目标导向的方式感知和控制与我们世界的物理交互。另一方面，它们使我们能够协调复杂的社会互动，尤其是理解和产生语言。事件预测学习将感觉运动体验分割成事件预测编码。一旦形成了第一个编码，大脑就会逐渐学习更高阶的组合结构，从而可以在多个抽象层次上反思过去、推理和计划。我们得出的结论是，人类概念思维可能基于构成其根源的事件预测认知原则。