Past on the ground floor and future in the attic: The vertical mental timeline.

Abstract

Time is represented along a horizontal mental line with an association between the past (or short duration) and left space as well as between the future (or long duration) and right space. A possible vertical time representation is also supposed to exist, even if results are contradictory depending on the stimuli and response keys used. The aim of the present study was to test the presence of a vertical representation of temporal expressions, overcoming possible methodological limits. In Experiment 1, 167 Italian students had to categorize 20 Italian temporal expressions that appeared at the center of the screen with two analogous vertical response keys ("down" and "up" arrows of a regular keyboard). Specifically, in Experiment 1A participants pressed the down arrow with their left hand and the up arrow with their right hand, whereas in Experiment 1B the key-hand assignment was reversed. In Experiment 2, 25 participants underwent the same procedure using a vertically positioned response box. The same participants also performed a Time-to-Position task, in which they located temporal expressions along a vertical line. In both experiments, a space-time interaction was found, with an association between past expressions and the bottom (or down arrow) response key as well as between future expressions and the top (or up arrow) key. The results suggest a bottom-to-top mapping of time representation, according to the "more-is-up" metaphor. Public Significance StatementThe present study suggests that a vertical mental timeline representation exists, showing a space--time association from bottom to top. This mental representation is probably influenced by the daily life experience of verticality in the physical world, such as the construction of a building from the ground floor to the attic, according to the "more-is-up" metaphor. The results were confirmed using both an analogous and a literal concept of verticality in a temporal judgment task, and this bottomto-top representation of time was not influenced by the hand used to press the response button. Moreover, we confirmed not only that the past was associated with the bottom space and the future was associated with the top space, but also that the temporal expressions used in this study showed an ordinal pattern when participants performed a Time-to-Position task. Therefore, we can conclude that, even if temporal expressions do not refer to fixed moments in time, they occupy a specific position on the mental timeline with a "specific order."

When time stands upright: STEARC effects along the vertical axis

“…A past-bottom/future-top mapping was also reported by Ding et al (2020) in three experiments employing 10 pastrelated words and 10 future-related words (see also Beracci & Fabbri, 2022, for similar results with Italian participants). When discussing the results of their experiments, Ding et al (2020) concluded that time-referenced-point tasks, such as those involving the pictures of actions or events forming a definite temporal sequence (e.g., the picture of a whole apple, followed by the picture of a half-eaten apple), would give rise to a top-to-bottom mapping, whereas ego-referenced-point tasks, such as those involving abstract concepts referring to participants' past versus future events, would give rise to a bottom-to-top mapping.…”

“…To recap, top-to-bottom time representations-which are consistent with the reading direction-would emerge for stimuli that can be embedded within a defined temporal dichotomy, such as in the case of the 100 versus 900 ms time durations used in our Experiments 1a and 3, which probably give rise to a short versus long dichotomy, or in the case of the pictures showing the earlier versus later stages of actions or events used in Xiao et al (2018; Experiment 1), which probably give rise to an earlier versus later dichotomy. By contrast, bottom-to-top representations-which are consistent with both ATOM and the polarity correspondence model, and with the general "more is up" metaphor-would emerge for stimuli that can evoke a relatively dense temporal continuum, like the nine time durations used in Experiment 2a, the nine life episodes used in Xiao et al (2018;Experiment 2), or the 20 time-related words used in Ding et al (2020) and in Beracci and Fabbri (2022). In this regard, the results of Experiment 4-in which no evidence of a spatial representation of time emerged, likely because the temporal context that the employed target durations created was rather ambiguous-are of particular interest, and they seem to corroborate the intriguing perspective here outlined (i.e., in Experiment 4, the participants may have perceived the temporal durations as belonging to neither a dichotomy nor a continuum).…”

Face Age is Mapped Into Three‐Dimensional Space

“…(2011), this reflects the presence of specific linguistic metaphors in Mandarin, which are absent in English, linking early/late time concepts with the vertical axis. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the possible role of language in shaping the spatial mapping of time‐related concepts is a debated topic, as vertical STEARC effects have also been documented in other languages, such as German (e.g., Stocker et al., 2016), Croatian (e.g., Topić et al., 2022), and, more relevant to the present context, Italian (e.g., Beracci & Fabbri, 2022; Dalmaso et al., 2023a). In summary, the literature examining possible STEARC effects for face age is still limited; it is not conclusive and requires additional research.…”

“…Therefore, even if linguistic characteristics may play a role in the emergence of STEARC effects, a “pure” presentation of faces of different ages could create a particularly relevant context that could trigger a top‐to‐bottom spatial representation in speakers of languages that lack metaphors linking time and vertical space. Second, two recent studies involving Italian participants (Beracci & Fabbri, 2022; Dalmaso et al., 2023a) found reliable evidence of a vertical STEARC effect. In particular, Dalmaso et al.…”

“…Lastly, there is growing evidence showing that time can also be mapped along the vertical axis, but the evidence in this case is mixed. Indeed, depending on the type of stimuli and the experimental task, in previous studies either bottom‐to‐top (e.g., Beracci & Fabbri, 2022; Beracci, Rescott, Natale, & Fabbri, 2022; Casasanto & Bottini, 2014; Dalmaso, Schnapper, & Vicovaro, 2023a; Ding, Feng, He, Cheng, & Fan, 2020; Stocker, Hartmann, Martarelli, & Mast, 2016; Xiao, Zhao, & Chen, 2018) or top‐to bottom (e.g., Casasanto & Bottini, 2014; Dalmaso et al., 2023a; Topić, Stojić, & Domijan, 2022; Xiao et al., 2018) representations have emerged. While the bottom‐to‐top representation is consistent with the “more is up” metaphor, which closely resembles everyday activities such as stacking objects on top of each other (Myachykov, Scheepers, Fischer, & Kessler, 2014), the top‐to‐bottom spatial representation is consistent with the reading/writing direction, which, in Western cultures, proceeds not only from left to right but also from top to bottom.…”