Constructing mental time without visual experience

Hendricks, Rose; Boroditsky, Lera

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.06.011

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Therefore, recent studies have provided somewhat mixed results. These studies and the results shown in this study suggest that abstract concepts, especially time in this case, are neither exclusively embodied nor inflexible, but rather are grounded in both external (i.e., physical space) and internal (i.e., one's body) experience (see also Hendricks & Boroditsky, 2015). Furthermore, which association is activated depends on various factors (in the present study, the direction of stimuli).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

The flexibility of association between temporal concepts and physical space in the Japanese language

Mochizuki

2018

Int J Psychol

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Previous studies have indicated that temporal concepts such as the past and future are associated with horizontal (left–right) space. This association has been interpreted as reflecting left‐to‐right writing systems. The Japanese language, however, is written both horizontally and vertically and, when texts are presented vertically, the sequence of columns runs from right to left. This study examines whether the associations between time and space are changed by the direction of the character strings using a word categorization task. Consistent with previous studies, response times and error rates indicated left‐past and right‐future associations when participants read words presented horizontally. On the other hand, response times indicated the opposite (i.e., left‐future and right‐past associations) when participants read words presented vertically. These results suggest that temporal concepts are not associated with one's body or physical space in an inflexible manner, but rather the associations can flexibly change through experience.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

The flexibility of association between temporal concepts and physical space in the Japanese language

Mochizuki

2018

Int J Psychol

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“…Because words on the left are read before those on the right, a conceptual association is created between the order of events in time and relative spatial position. Such cultural conventions therefore influence the way in which we conceptualize the notion of temporal order: events that happen first are represented on the left whereas those that happen later are represented on the right ( Fuhrman and Boroditsky, 2010 ; Hendricks and Boroditsky, 2015 ). Our data, along with many previous findings (e.g., Vallesi et al, 2008 ; Vicario et al, 2008 ), suggest that these cultural conventions also influence our notion of duration : events of short duration are represented on the left and longer ones on the right.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mental Timeline for Duration From the Age of 5 Years Old

2018

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Both time and number can be represented in spatial terms. While their representation in terms of spatial magnitude (distance or size) might be innate, their representation in terms of spatial position (left/right or up/down) is acquired. In Western culture, the mental timeline represents past/future events or short/long duration on the left/right sides of space, respectively. We conducted two developmental studies to pinpoint the age at which the mental timeline for duration begins to be acquired. Children (aged 5–6, 8, or 10 years old) and adults performed temporal bisection tasks in which relative spatial position (left/right) was manipulated by either arrow direction (Experiment 1) and/or lateralized stimulus location (Experiments 1 and 2). Results first confirmed previous findings that the symbolic representation of spatial position conveyed by arrow stimuli influences the perception of duration in older children. Both 8 and 10 year olds judged the duration of leftward arrows to be shorter than that of rightward arrows. We also showed for the first time that as long as position is manipulated in a non-symbolic way by the visual eccentricity of the stimuli, then even 5–6 year olds’ perception of duration is influenced by spatial position. These children judged the duration of left-lateralized stimuli to be shorter than that of either right-lateralized or centrally located stimuli. These data are consistent with the use of a mental timeline for stimulus duration from the age of 5 years old, with short duration being represented on the left side of space and long duration on the right. Nevertheless, the way in which left and right were manipulated determined the age at which spatial position influenced duration judgment: physical spatial location influenced duration perception from the age of 5 years old whereas arrow direction influenced it from the age of 8. This age-related dissociation may reflect distinct developmental trajectories of automatic versus voluntary spatial attentional mechanisms and, more generally highlights the importance of accounting for attentional ability when interpreting results of duration judgment tasks.

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“…We had to exclude all experiments that examined the mental timeline with methods other than RT recordings such as assessing gestures or laying out temporal sequences (Hendricks & Boroditsky, ). We only included studies with adult participants because the mental timeline is most probably caused by cultural imprint so needs time to evolve in individuals (Tillman, Tulagan, & Barner, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Space–Time Congruency Effect: A Meta‐Analysis

et al. 2019

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Several reaction time (RT) studies report faster responses when responses to temporal information are arranged in a spatially congruent manner than when this arrangement is incongruent. The resulting space–time congruency effect is commonly attributed to a culturally salient localization of temporal information along a mental timeline (e.g., a mental timeline that runs from left to right). The present study aims to provide a compilation of the published RT studies on this time–space association in order to estimate the size of its effect and the extent of potential publication bias in this field of research. In this meta‐analysis, three types of task are distinguished due to hitherto existing empirical findings. These findings suggest that the extent to which time is made relevant to the experimental task has a systematic impact on whether or not the mental timeline is activated. The results of this meta‐analysis corroborate these considerations: First, experiments that make time a task‐relevant dimension have a mean effect size of d = 0.46. Second, in experiments in which time is task irrelevant, the effect size does not significantly deviate from zero. Third, temporal priming studies have a surprisingly high mean effect size of d = 0.47, which, however, should be adjusted to d = 0.36 due to publication bias.

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Constructing mental time without visual experience

Cited by 7 publications

References 9 publications

The flexibility of association between temporal concepts and physical space in the Japanese language

The flexibility of association between temporal concepts and physical space in the Japanese language

A Mental Timeline for Duration From the Age of 5 Years Old

The Space–Time Congruency Effect: A Meta‐Analysis

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