Ritualized behavior and action parsing: How ritualization affects action representation

Description

Ritualized behavior is generally characterized by a number of features that distinguishes it from ordinary, instrumental actions. Thus, iteration, redundancy, goal-demotion, stipulation and causal underspecification are often considered as defining characteristics. However, few experimental studies have directly addressed ritualization and attempted to operationalize these features in order to investigate their effect on cognitive processing. In contrast to this lack, numerous studies have investigated ordinary action representation in order to elicit the cognitive processes involved when humans process actions. In two recent experiments we have attempted to explore one such paradigm, the unitization paradigm of Newtson and colleagues, in order to investigate how different features of ritualization influence cognitive processing. This will lead to a discussion of (a) further possibilities of experimental investigations of ritual and ritualization; (b) how computer simulation and neural networks can help develop predictions concerning ritualized behavior.