Joint spatial–temporal association of response codes (STEARC) effect: Mental timelines embodied interpersonally

Abstract

A co‐action task was used to explore the effect of social interactions on temporal judgements, in comparison with an individual‐task condition. In Experiment 1, the co‐actors sat either individually (individual condition) or alongside a partner (joint condition) in front of a monitor and then responded to time‐related words (e.g. yesterday, tomorrow). In Experiment 2, co‐actors sat separately in front of two monitors and categorized the words either individually or jointly. Participants' response times to past‐ and future‐related words in the individual conditions of both experiments had no significant difference. However, in the joint conditions, the responses were faster when the past‐time words were mapped toward the participants on the left than when future‐time words were mapped toward them. Our data support the existence of a specific mapping between past‐time–left space and future‐time–right space. This suggests that the two cooperators probably shared a similar mental timeline.